Friday's game is more than a meeting of the giants of District One. It's a meeting of the giants.

Perhaps the only other team in the district with as many capable and talented bigs as Chester is the team the top-seeded Clippers (26-0) will go against – second-seeded Lower Merion (25-2).

Chester boasts senior Tavaune Griffin (6-7), junior Rondae Jefferson (6-7), senior Zimir Geiger (6-6), junior Richard Granberry (6-6) and senior Erikk Wright (6-4). Meanwhile, Lower Merion has senior Yohanny Dalembert (6-7), junior B.J. Johnson (6-5, pictured above) and junior Darryl Reynolds (6-4, pictured below).

Here's what a few had to say about the pairing of the bigs...
Wright: “Playing against Tavaune and Richard in practice makes me stronger.”

Jefferson: “We've got solid, strong guys. Guys like Zimir, Richard and Tavaune are our strong guys. We've got little Erikk Wright, who's tremendous. We love him. There's nothing he doesn't do. We're just going to feed them. We're going to see what they do against their bigs.”

Griffin: “Our gameplan is to get the ball inside and work it inside-out. That's all there is to it.”

Let's see how it all plays out Friday.

(Photos courtesy AcesHoops.com)

Losing Wednesday night in the Catholic League semifinals should have been the first and immediate thing on Shep Garner's mind. Instead, he was thinking states.

A sophomore at Roman Catholic, which lost to Neumann-Goretti, 73-56, Garner said he's looking forward to next month's PIAA Class AAAA tournament. Not for the chance to win a state title, but for the chance to see his hometown team -- Chester High.

"I'm real excited because I'm from Chester, so it's good to know we could run into them along the way," said Garner, who had 20 points in Wednesday's loss. "I'm friends with the whole team – Darius (Robinson), Rondae (Jefferson), Kareem (Robinson), Richard (Granberry), Tavaune (Griffin), everybody. I'm with them every weekend. It's good to think about playing against your childhood friends, guys you played in the Biddy League with."

Garner said he considered "staying home" and attending Chester High will all of his childhood friends, but in the end, he said "Roman was just the right fit for me."

"That's his home, so I expect him to be excited about that," Roman Catholic coach Chris McNesby said of Garner. "With these guys, I'll play against anybody. They're a good group of kids."

In related news, Chester senior Shanier Cottman was spied at the Palestra Wednesday for the Catholic League semifinal doubleheader. He said he was there to see Chester natives like Garner of Roman, as well as Archbishop Carroll's Yosef Yacob, Isaiah Warren and Francis Jackson.

Carroll lost to St. Joseph's Prep, 59-48, in the other semifinal. The Patriots will play Philadelphia Electrical next Wednesday in the District 12 Class AAA third-place game at Archbishop Ryan High School.

(Photo courtesy Scout.com)

Here are a couple photos from Thursday night's Chester/Penn Wood game, which the host Clippers won, 71-65. (All work by Daily Times photographer Bob Gurecki):

Chester All-Delco Mo Nelson picks the ball from Penn Wood's Jerry Price en route to the rim. Nelson's bucket closed the Clippers' deficit to 16-15 just before the end of the first quarter.

Chester's Richard Grandbury swats a Penn Wood shot attempt in the third quarter, during which Grandbury made blocks on back-to-back possessions.

Chester's Tavaune Griffin tries to pass around a pair of Penn Wood defenders, reigning Daily Times' Player of the Year Aaron Brown, left, among them.

For you Delco basketball fans out there looking to get caught up on some of the county's finest who have moved onto college, this semi-regular feature is for you. Today, we take a peak at Rahlir Jefferson:


It's not often that a freshman on Temple coach Fran Dunphy's squad gets minutes. But in Rahlir Jefferson's situation, he isn't just playing; he's making a difference.

The 2009 Chester graduate and All-Delco forward, Jefferson averages 16 minutes a game for the 16th-ranked Owls. He's become a defensive specialist, checking into the game late to lock down on the opposition's best scorer. Despite playing only 300 minutes, Jefferson is second on the team with 13 steals, and also fills out the stat sheet with 3.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks.

Who knows? With the way he and the Owls (16-3) are playing, we might be talking about Jefferson deep into March.

But, hey -- this post isn't just about the past. Here's a closer look at some of the action from Wednesday night:

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It may be a couple months - and with less on the line - but Chester got some revenge on Williamsport.

The Clippers (8-3) easily handled the Millionaires in a game on a neutral court, at Coatesville High, as part of the Mid-Atlantic Shootout. Chester lost to Williamsport last winter in the second round of the PIAA Class AAAA playoffs.

Erikk Wright, a sophomore, continues to impress. He had 12 points and 15 boards. Tavaune Griffin had seven rebounds and three blocks and Mo Nelson led the way with 15 points

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EXTRA BOUNCES
---Five of Upper Darby's eight losses have come by two possessions or fewer. Count the Royals' 44-43 loss to Springfield tonight among them. The Cougars' Adam Washington had 15 for the victors.
---Radnor, which scored 12 points in the first quarter, scored only 11 in the second half of its 37-29 loss to Ridley.
---Marple Newtown's Soutiri Sapnas, already the leading scorer in Delco, filled up the rim with 46 points in an 80-74 loss to Conestoga. Sapnas, the Tigers' all-time and single-season scoring champ, fell short of his 49-point career high, however.