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BOYS’ BASKETBALL: Deuce Turner Makes History, Becomes Inter-Ac League All-Time Leading Scorer

By Ed Morrone, 01/15/20, 4:30PM EST

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Malvern Prep guard Deuce Turner amasses 2,100 career points as the Friars remain undefeated in Inter-Ac Play.

By: Ed Morrone   -   @EdMorrone

MALVERN, PA — When the Inter-Ac League first started offering boys basketball as a competitive sport in 1924, Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States and a gallon of milk cost just 35 cents. The league itself formed in 1887, with football and track being the only options at the time, and is widely-recognized as the oldest of its kind anywhere in America.

This is relevant in the sense that a lot of players have laced up a pair of high tops in the Inter-Ac over the decades: great ones, bad ones and players somewhere in between.


Deuce Turner became the Inter-Ac League All-Time Leading Scorer (2,109+), surpassing Episcopal Academy’s John Phillips’ record of 2,068 career points that stood for 21 years - PSD Photo by Zamani Feelings

Deuce Turner, a Class of 2020 guard for Malvern Prep, is one of the great ones. In a Monday win over Cheltenham, Turner became the ancient league’s all-time leading basketball scorer when he passed Episcopal Academy’s John Phillips’ 2,068 career points, a record that had stood for 21 years. 

The next day, in Tuesday’s 77-59 home win over SCH Academy in which the Friars improved to 14-4 overall and 3-0 in Inter-Ac play, Turner poured in 30 more, putting his career total at 2,112 and counting. The scariest part of all this? Turner still has 11 games left in the regular season plus the Inter-Ac and PAISAA Tournaments to pad his final number.

So, you know, good luck to anyone with their sights set on catching him.

“It’s really great company to be in,” Turner said after the SCH win. “I’ve done my research on the league a little bit, and there are some guys who had great careers in college and the NBA, as well as many more great players who never made it to those levels. I’m just trying to push, and hopefully people will look back on my Malvern career and say I was able to inspire kids to push and drive to get to that next level themselves. Hopefully, some other kid comes along and breaks my record one day.”

Turner will indeed play at the next level, bound for Bucknell University later this year. At the Cheltenham game, Turner said he got a chance to meet and talk to Phillips, who wanted to be in attendance and pass the all-time leading scorer baton in person.

“It was great having John there and getting a chance to talk to him,” he said. “I had never met him, didn’t even knew what he looked like, and he had never seen me play in person. He just wanted to congratulate me, and he told me he was really proud of what I’m doing. He encouraged me to keep going.”

Turner said he didn’t truly get to enjoy the accomplishment in the moment since it was early in the game and Malvern was trailing at the time. Individual accomplishments are great and Turner is honored to stand alone in history, but at the same time, Malvern, which began playing basketball in the Inter-Ac in 1950 and hasn’t won a league title since 2012, is chasing bigger goals as a team.

“I wasn’t focused on it and was just out there playing trying to give my team a spark,” Turner said. “But it is great knowing I’m the frontrunner now. It shows all my hard work has paid off and that I’m one of the best at what I do. It’s a great feeling.”

Now that the scoring record is out of the way, the heavily-favored Friars can turn their attention to snatching the league crown out of two-time defending champion Haverford’s hands. That, Turner said, is all that matters now.

“Winning is key, and since we haven’t won a championship, it’s all I’m focused on,” he said. “I’ve got pretty much every scoring record at this point, so there’s no more drive to keep pushing at it. It’s just great to see our team have success, because I think this is the best one we’ve had.”

Against SCH (7-8, 1-2) on Tuesday, it was business as usual for Turner. Like always, his 30 points came in a variety of ways, be it on drives to the rim, jump shots, three-pointers and getting to the foul line. Turner shot 10-for-18 from the field and 7-for-9 from the line with three three-pointers. About the only way he didn’t score was on dunks, going 0-for-2 on those, prompting head coach John Harmatuk to crack after the game, “I tell you what, if he finished those dunks he’d have 3,000 already.”

Deuce Turner reflects on becoming the Inter-Ac's All-Time Leading Scorer:

Harmatuk, who got a milestone of his own on Tuesday in reaching his 100th career victory, first met Turner, a Coatesville native, when he was in grade school. Friars junior guard Rahdir Hicks also attended Malvern’s middle school, and Hicks’ father, Ricky, coached Hicks and Turner’s AAU team, Rip City. 

“Right away, you could see Deuce could score,” Harmatuk recalled. “We like to run a more up-tempo kind of style where we spread the floor and use the three-point line to get to the rim. Our style of play just fit him. When we talked about him coming to school here, I told him with his skill set and the way we want to play here, if he bought in and did what we needed him to, good things are going to happen. And, sure enough…”

SCH head coach Julian McFadden is a former basketball player of the team he now coaches, having graduated from the school in 2006. During his playing career, McFadden played against the likes of Penn Charter’s Sean Singletary and Episcopal’s Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson, all of whom played in the NBA, with only Henderson reaching the 2,000-point mark. 

It’s not an easy number to reach, and even though McFadden’s team lost to Turner on Tuesday, the coach had nothing but respect and admiration to offer.

“Definitely an unbelievable accomplishment with the likes of the great players who have played in this league,” McFadden said. “Deuce has been a consistent scorer from all three levels since he arrived as a freshman. His presence on the floor is one you always have to account for given how naturally skilled a scorer he is. As a former Inter-Ac player, it’s refreshing to witness.”

Brian Shanahan, who graduated from Episcopal in 2004 and played with Henderson and Ellington before becoming the school’s head coach years later, was similarly in awe of the legacy Turner has built.

Malvern Prep vs. Springside Game Highlights by Ed Morrone:

“It speaks volumes to how talented a scorer and player Deuce is,” he said. “It’s a league with such great coaching and talented players, and for him to be a player who is keyed on every game for four years and stillscore 2,000-plus is remarkable. That’s what makes Deuce historic in our league.”

One day, perhaps when Malvern’s season ends, Turner will reflect upon the totality of his journey. But for now, he and his teammates, whom he praised effusively after the game for their efforts in helping him get to this point (especially on the defensive end), have work yet to do, and they don’t plan on stopping until the Inter-Ac basketball trophy resides in Malvern once again.

“We understand that we are the most talented team in the league,” Turner said. “But we have to come out in every practice and game and prove that. This group has never won the league, and that pushes us every day to not hold back. We want to go out there and take it.”