City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Reading entered Tuesday night as one of the state’s most talented teams and with some of the highest possible expectations for their seasons. The Red Knights are a tall, well-coached team, and have one of the most prolific players Pennsylvania has to offer in nationally-recruited junior Lonnie Walker.

Coatesville came in as an underdog, not just in the game, against a larger and arguably more talented team, but in the Ches-Mont conference and in district one as well.

What mattered in the end, however, was how the Red Raiders left the game--undefeated and playing classic Coatesville basketball, as they notched a hard-nosed victory over the Red Knights, by a final score of 61-51.

The win was their second over a top-notch area opponent and third total on the season, as the Red Raiders took down Lower Merion, a perennial district contender on opening night Friday, before smacking Bartram Communications the following day.

“I’m happy for my guys,” said Coatesville head coach Chuck Moore. “Obviously this was a game they had circled on their calendars, Reading’s a great team, with a star. They stepped up to the challenge, we threw some jump defense at them and they responded well. I’m just proud of them, at the end of the day all we can do as coaches is come and prepare them for success but it’s up to them to execute it. I’m extremely proud of them, they adjusted, they talked, they competed, they played together, and that’s always a formula for success.”

The “star” Moore referred to, Walker, had himself a less-than-steller night, leaving in the second court with an apparent wrist injury, but coming back to close the half with a layup--his first two points of the night--which would send the game to halftime with his team trailing 32-24. He ended the game with 10 points. 

As for “playing together,” that wasn’t really a pattern expressed by last year’s Red Raiders, but this year it’s clear that under the vocal leadership of senior guard Rome Boyer, Coatesville is playing communicative and united team basketball.

“I feel like everybody looks up to me as the oldest one and the leader on the team, so if I fall down, they’re going to fall down with me,” Boyer said. “I’ve got to keep my head up, so they can keep pushing as well.”

Boyer, who led all scorers with fifteen, didn’t have a point until the second half, when he dropped three three-pointers as Coatesville built what had been a three-point lead into a a 43-31 lead with 1:38 to go in the third.  

“I think Rome grew up this game,” Moore added. “As most seniors do, they come into the season kind of pressing a little bit, to kind of make a name for themselves. For the first half, he kind of did that, kind of forced some things, forced the issues, just tried to get the team going. At halftime I told him to let the game come to him...he settled in, hit a few shots, and once you hit shots, for a shooter, that rim starts to get a little bit bigger. That’s a huge testament to him, he grew up big time.”

Big man Justus Martinez, another senior, also had thirteen points while grabbing ten boards. Reading's Damon Stern led his team with thirteen as well.

After Boyer began to cool down, the Red Knights fought back within seven, but could never close the gap any further than that.

During the preseason, Moore knew both this game and the victory over Lower Merion would be two tough home tests, that would require a large bit of help from the Red Raiders’ always influential crowd.

When things got chippy towards the end, and a technical foul was called on Reading’s Khary Mouras after a scuffle under the basket, that audience was rocking in support of its home team. 

The foul shots from that technical were enough to seal the win, as they put Coatesville up 57-44 in the final three minutes.

The black- and red-clad Raider fans certainly brought it in full force throughout the whole night, not just when it got heated, and powered their hometown squad to play in a winning manner that reflected the heart of Coatesville as a city and as a school.

“It’s a huge effect, especially with the things that have been going on with Coatesville, we’re kind of struggling as a district right now, just trying to go on the right path,” said Moore. “For the community to come out and get behind us and support us and for us to play well in front of them, I think it’s major for us as a team and for the community as a whole. It’s good to win in that. For them to come and have us win only makes every game moving forward bigger.”

“We played the Coatesville way, a tradition that’s been here for years, well before I got here, just a blue-collar, hard-working town, and for those community members to come out and see that is major for us moving forward,” he added.

While the games ahead will continue to grow in importance for the Red Raiders, the two wins they earned in the past five days over Lower Merion and Reading have the chance to be a catapult towards even more classic Coatesville-esque accomplishments in the long-run.

“I think when you beat a team like Reading you put a small target on your back, which is okay," Moore said. "I think my team is capable of winning a game like this and focusing tomorrow again for Downingtown East. But for us, it shows how well we can play. I told them, ‘it’s amazing what a team can do when they play together, with hard work always being the formula.’ I can trust my three year guys to come in prepared, shake this one off, celebrate tonight, and come in focused by Thursday.”