Westtown School girls, Phelps School boys capture Pa. Independent Schools basketball titles

After Westtown School lost one of its most dominant players last season in Savannah Curry, who graduated and went to Temple, the Moose were in need of some underclassmen to step up in her absence.

They’ve gotten just that this season in sophomore Jordyn Palmer. She finished with a game-high 26 points and dominated in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association championship Sunday at Hagan Arena.

Palmer sparked Westtown (27-3) to a commanding 71-47 win over Friends’ Central in a rematch of last year’s PAISAA championship. The win gave the Moose their fourth straight title. In the boys’ final, The Phelps School downed The Hill School, 66-56.

“We have a lot of trust within each other,” said Westtown’s Atlee Vanesko. “We’re with each other all the time, so we have a lot of chemistry. We’re like sisters. We go out, we have fun, and we hold each other accountable.”

When Westtown beat Friends’ Central in the title game last year, the team splashed coach Fran Burbidge with a couple of cups of water during the locker room celebration.

This year, Palmer and the rest of the Westtown players had a different plan. After their dominant win, they lured Burbidge into the locker room, splashing him again lightly. Little did he know that around the corner Palmer and a couple of her teammates were waiting with an entire tub of water to soak him.

“Last year we got him with the cups only,” senior Olivia Jones said. “This year we thought he’d be expecting the cups. So this year we took the whole thing.”

The Phoenix (24-9) held a three-point lead through the first quarter, and it seemed like the matchup was set to be a close one. Palmer and the Moose quickly took control and closed out the second quarter on a 19-2 run, giving them an 18-point lead heading into the half.

“Honestly, it all just starts on the defensive end,” Jones said. “Making winning stops that lead to transition points. We just had to turn it up on defense, box out, and rebound.”

The Moose built a 27-point lead through the third quarter and dominated until the final buzzer.

Burbidge hinted that the Moose may still have more basketball on the horizon, with a chance that the Moose will be selected for the Chipotle Nationals set for April 3-5 in Fishers, Ind.

“I would think that that’s a very strong possibility that they’ll continue to play,” Burbidge said. “We’ll take a little time off here and we’ll see how it plays out. But I don’t think they’re done playing basketball this year.”

At the beginning of the season, The Phelps School forward Onyx Nnani told coach Trey Morin that the only time he’s seen the coach really nervous was before last season’s PAISAA championship game against Perkiomen School.

The nerves got to the Lions as they fell short in 2024. This season was a different story. Morin had no nerves heading into the championship game against The Hill School, even when the score was tied at 43 heading into the fourth quarter.

“I wasn’t even remotely nervous,” Morin said. “The level of effort and focus these guys showed this week was a different vibe.”

That focus, along with Nnani’s game-high 20 points, helped propel The Phelps School to a 66-56 win over The Hill School (17-4). The win gave Phelps (16-22) its first championship since the 2015 season.

“There’s very few teams that get to win their last game of the season,” Morin said. “And also reach their potential as a team. You go into every year and say, ‘We don’t have this, or if we’re going to win games it’s going to be in this area.’ And it wasn’t always like that this year.”

The title was hard-fought. Neither team held more than a five-point lead through the first three quarters. The fourth quarter was different, as center Justin Houser dominated in the final frame, scoring 11 of his 15 points. He converted on back-to-back and-one layups that helped give Phelps an eight-point lead with less than three minutes remaining.

“It was tied going into the fourth quarter,” Houser said. “It was basically zero-to-zero to me. I wanted to do everything in my power to make sure that we won the game. So, I gave my best effort and we ended up coming out with the dub.”

Nnani and Houser are graduating this year, but their basketball careers are far from over. Nnani is committed to Arkansas State and Houser is committed to Penn State. Both of them are excited for what’s next, but they were also extremely happy to end their high school careers with a win.

“It just means so much,” Houser said. “This is the dream way to go out. We just won our state championship in our last game of the season. For me, it’s just about the best ending possible.”