Haverford School Loses By One To Germantown Academy

Shawn Alton pounded the ball hard on the court out of frustration when the final seconds ticked away. It was the exclamation point to another maddeningly tough loss for , after the Fords fell to Germantown Academy, 60-59, Friday night to drop to 5-3 in the Inter-Academic League and 15-8 overall.

It should be noted the Fords played without 7-foot-junior exchange student Tao Xu, who was suspended for the game because he received two technical fouls and was ejected from the Fords’ previous game against Penn Charter, a Haverford School victory. It also should be noted that the second technical call came when Xu saluted the Haverford School fans that attended the game, something he’s done this whole season without receiving a technical foul.

Though Fords’ coach Henry Fairfax wasn’t about to blame Friday night’s loss on the absence of Xu, who had a career-best performance in the Fords’ first game against Germantown Academy this season, with 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocked shots. No, this loss came to something Fairfax put very succinctly, “free throws, we didn’t make them.”

“For us, it boiled down to getting stops and making free throws in the fourth quarter, which has been an issue this whole season,” Fairfax continued. “We lost the game because we missed foul shots. That’s why we lost the game, not because we didn’t have Tao. That’s what it came down to, because these kids want to win so badly, they do get anxious and they don’t know how to win the close games—yet. It’s coming, and we saw that last week when we beat Malvern Prep for the first time. We saw everything come together, so we know it's possible.”

The Fords strong games from Semaj Reed, who scored a career-best 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, and freshmen Sammy Foreman, who scored 14 and Shawn Alston, who keeps improving and scored 9, mostly in the game’s most crucial situations.

“My freshman year I had my best game at Germantown, and I had to put together a full game tonight,” Reed said. “Without Tao, I knew I had to step up, and it was key to make shots and rebound.”

Alston played a nice role in the Fords’ 11-0 run to begin the second half, converting a Germantown eight-point lead into a 35-32 Haverford School advantage midway into the third quarter. The Fords led 43-29 entering the fourth quarter. Germantown’s 6-foot-9 junior Julian Moore had been on the bench in foul trouble during the third quarter. Once he returned, the game’s complexion changed.

“It is frustrating, the chips are falling in the wrong spots,” Alston said. “We all want to win so badly that I think we do get anxious. What we need to do is trust our teammates more. We wanted this game, because it would have put us in first place in the Inter-Ac. Now we’re going to need help again.”