Upper Darby in position to take Central League title

CROSS THE MOAT, break out the giant skeleton key, open the creaky doors, descend carefully to the basement files, brush off the dust and take a long look.

When was the last time Upper Darby won a Central League boys' basketball championship?

"Uh . . . never," UD coach Bob Miller said with a half-question slant. "I'm not from around here. But my athletic director told me it was never."

Until those dusty record books prove otherwise, we'll take the sort-of sure word. By then, however, it might all be academic.

With a steely resolve down the stretch, the Royals won their ninth straight game last night, a 69-65 home survival test over Ridley. At 14-2, Upper Darby has vaulted into the league lead, one game ahead of Ridley and Springfield, which was upset by Strath Haven last night.

Still to come - a second seasonal clash between Upper Darby and Springfield on Tuesday, a game in which the Royals can clinch their first Central League title.

We think.

"That's the big one," Upper Darby senior Elie Daniel said with gleeful anticipation.

Surely, Daniel and his Royals teammates have that game with the Cougars in their sights. Aside from a possible championship prize, they're looking to pay back Springfield for its 71-63 overtime victory over Upper Darby on Jan. 9, the Royals' only loss in their last 18 games.

But before they leap ahead, the Royals should take a look back - for Ridley came very close to rewriting Upper Darby's storybook season.

The Royals (20-2 overall) had to be beaming with bravado after Damone Armstead's jumper from beyond the arc just before the intermission buzzer put Ridley in a 27-19 halftime hole.

But the Green Raiders (17-5, 13-3 league) drew some offensive energy from senior guard Dahmir Barrett (12 points) and junior Steve Egee (15 points), and began a long but hurried climb back.

Only Daniel, who scored Upper Darby's first 12 points of the third quarter, was able to keep his team afloat. After a pair of Egee free throws had cut Ridley's deficit to 33-29, Daniel drilled back-to-back three-pointers to lift Upper Darby back to a comfortable advantage.

Yet Ridley kept coming. A pair of baskets by center Dan Robinson and an Egee trey pulled the Raiders close. Then Egee took a pass from sophomore point guard Calvin Newell and laid it in at the buzzer, good for a 43-43 tie after three quarters . . . and a lot of nervous talk in the Upper Darby huddle?

"Nah," Royals senior Clinton Cole said. "We've been down a lot of times like that before. We knew we just had to keep playing our game."

Problem was, Cole was in foul trouble, and his teammates had been struggling in other areas.

If this was going to be another reason to go get the record books, Upper Darby was going to have to revise its usual winning script.

"The seniors had let our bench players down," Daniel said, referring to earlier in the game. "We were getting lots of little fouls . . . Coach sat us on the bench and told us to watch."

Upper Darby junior Frank Harris had helped pick up the slack, scoring most of his eight points early on. But after a Robinson alley-oop basket posted a 54-48 Ridley lead, it was going to have to be the Upper Darby elders to fashion a comeback.

"We all came to the bench and our coach just looked at us and asked, 'What's wrong?' " said Daniel, who finished with 17. "He said we were not gonna lose this game. So everybody just looked at each other after that and said, 'No, we're not losing this game.'

"Any given day we can lose," Daniel added, "so we look at it that every day could be our last, so we have to win. We've got to win every game."

As if on command, Cole shrugged off his foul trouble and snuck through to the basket twice to cut the Ridley lead to 54-53.

Then fellow senior Khayri West took a pass from Daniel and put Upper Darby back up, 55-54, with 2:48 to play.

A crucial Cole three-pointer from out on the wing made it a 62-58 Upper Darby lead. But this latest comeback wasn't going to be complete without a show of steady nerves at the foul line.

So first West hit a pair of free throws, then Tad Gillis drilled four more, and Upper Darby was banging on the basement door once again.

Asked if he knew how many years it had been since a Central League title had gone to an Upper Darby boys' basketball team, Daniel raised his eyes and said, "Um, double digits? Triple digits?"

Maybe next week, it'll be time to find out for sure. *

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