STATE COLLEGE -- Chester mayor John Linder will be the first to tell you he hasn't seen each of Chester High's boys basketball games this season.

"The last one I saw was the Norristown game (in the second round of the PIAA tournament)," Linder told me the other day. "But basketball is in our DNA. ... I don't have to see them every game to know how well they play and how well they're doing."

A 1965 graduate of Chester High, Linder made the trek with members of Chester city council to attend Saturday night's PIAA Class AAAA championship game against Lower Merion, when the nationally ranked Clippers will go for an undefeated season and their second consecutive state title.

When I asked Linder for a game prediction, he was initially reticent ... but then offered up this:

“For the balance, this is one of the best teams I've ever seen," Linder said. "You've got Rondae Jefferson. You've got the legacy with the Robinson boys (Darius, a junior, and Kareem, a senior). And the rest, I don't think there's any selfishness. They can get carried away, but they can reel it in. I don't think they're going to run away against Lower Merion. They'll win by five or six and get the game into the 70s. That's my prediction."

My prediction (a 71-62 win for Chester) appeared in Saturday's Daily Times, in addition to a full preview of the game. Hopefully you picked up a copy before checking it out on PCN tonight, or making the trip to Happy Valley.