City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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When Coatesville entered its Ches-Mont semifinal match-up with Great Valley Saturday evening, it was riding high on an 11-game win streak with the top spot in district playoffs having been all but locked up with this past Tuesday’s victory over rival Downingtown West.

In the mind of head coach Chuck Moore, the Red Raiders were riding a little too high, and they came out flat, allowing the underdog Patriots--who, granted, played an outstanding game--to hang around for what ended up being a forty minute basketball game.

“When you win a lot of games, human nature starts to set in,” Moore said. “When that happens, the confidence turns into a little bit of cockiness. I think Great Valley’s a great team, they were ready for us. But I think we slightly disrespected the game, the approach to it.”

And after one of the wildest games the Ches-Mont league has seen all season, despite their lackluster start, Coatesville road a clutch team effort into the conference title game, taking down Great Valley by a final score of 48-44 in double overtime.

“I think it’s a great game for us to learn from,” said Moore. “Being that this was a playoff atmosphere, it was a playoff game, and from here on out everything is going to be a playoff. I think my guys are still on cloud nine a little bit being 21-1 and securing first place, being number one, we were still riding that cloud and slightly disrespecting the moment and situation we were in. It’s a great game we can learn from, and the best part about it is we actually won. We lived to see another day. In the playoffs, there are no tomorrows.”

The guy who’s been Coatesville’s go-to for big shots all season, senior Rome Boyer, struggled for only eight points, and when he missed two three-pointers with a chance to tie the game at 44 in the final two minutes, it was clear that he probably wasn’t going to be the one to make the clutch play.

Instead, multiple other Red Raiders had critical moments late, collectively taking over Boyer’s role as the late-game performer.

The first and most crucial was forward Jordan Young. With Coatesville trailing 44-41 with just a minute to play, the Red Raiders missed five--count ‘em, five--shots on the same possession before Young came to the rescue.

Young, an Old Dominion football commit at quarterback, not only scored a putback to pull his team within a point, but had the game-tying foul shot that tied things up at 44 and forced the first overtime period.

While Young led his team with 15 points, he wasn’t the only one who stepped up for Coatesville. Junior Kamau Brickus played outstanding defense while scoring eight points, and Trent Hugan also added eight points including a high-flying alley-oop from Dalton Donovan.

“That’s who we’ve been all year, it’s been a collective effort,” Moore remarked. “At the end of the day, we’ve always been that type of team. Normally when guys like Rome or guys like Justus can’t find it, we’ve got guys that will step up, whether it be Jordan or Dalton, whoever. Today, Rome wasn’t normal Rome, so we had other guys fill in. A lot of guys played small parts.”

The overtime periods were when things got especially interesting.

After each team traded a scoreless possession, Coatesville took over possession with just over two minutes to go. They would hold the ball for the next 131 seconds, before a shot by Boyer got stuck in the rim. The ball changed hands to the Patriots, who would fail to convert in the remaining three seconds.

“Prior to that, we missed two layups,” Moore said. “Justus (Martinez) missed a layup, (Hugan) missed an easy layup, so at that point we were like ‘we might as well take the last shot.’ It wasn’t my game plan, it wasn’t what I wanted to do, but even with two minutes left we couldn’t get anything going so in the moment of the game we were like ‘you know what, we’ll take the last one.’”

Great Valley, ironically, tried a similar strategy to start the second overtime. Again, it failed, as a two-minute Patriot possession came and gone without a point. Coatesville’s Justus Martinez answered with a wide-open layup, which would be the only field goal made in either overtime period.

And after a steal with 11 seconds left, there was Boyer, who had struggled all night, to seal things from the free throw line.

Moore didn’t realize it, but when everything was said and done, his team had held Great Valley at 44 points--17 of which came from talented senior Will Buzan--from twelve consecutive minutes to close the game.

Now that Coatesville has been knocked down from cloud nine, they’ll have just two days to prepare for a grudge match with Downingtown West for the league title.

It’s safe to say the Red Raiders will be more than prepared for the raucous playoff atmosphere that game will bring.

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Downingtown West rolls Octorara in league title rematch

Last year, when Downingtown West met Octorara for the only time that season, the Braves hung around for three full quarters before West pulled away late to win the Ches-Mont title by fifteen. The atmosphere was exciting at that game and it showed on the court, as both teams brought their ‘A’ game.

This year’s installment was a much different story, and that became all too clear when Downingtown opened up a 15-2 lead in the first five minutes of play.

The Whippets rode that hot start to a dominant victory, taking down Octorara (19-4) by a final score of 75-48 to advance to their second straight conference title game.

“We didn’t take them lightly, that was my biggest concern,” said West head coach Jason Ritter. “They were 19-3 for a reason, they have one of the best players in the county in Christian Ray, we didn’t take them lightly. Defensive energy was our biggest thing going into this. We really had to lock in defensively because we’re going to have to play some really good teams coming up, and we’re going to have to be better defensively.”

For West, the bulk of their scoring has come from Division-I seniors Ryan Betley and Josh Warren. While those two ended up combining for 31 points, the initial spark came from senior Dom Guerrera and junior Wayne Anderson, who combined for the first nine Whippet points.

10 different West players ended up tallying points, thanks in part to the fact that a 59-29 lead at the end of the third quarter had the Whippets (21-2) emptying their bench and even playing a couple of JV starters before the final buzzer.

“Playing for each other has been our motto, it’s one more everything, make one more pass or set a screen for a teammate, draw a double-team for your teammate, everything’s for your teammate,” said Ritter of the balanced attack from his Whippets. “If we’re going to win the league, win districts, make a run at states, everybody’s got to be successful and contribute.”

Downingtown West has been in this position before. In last year’s league semifinals, the Whippets smacked Oxford 66-29. Rather than getting complacent after an easy win, they regrouped to deliver their league championship-winning performance three nights later.

This time they’ll only have two days to prepare for a grudge match with their bitter rivals, Coatesville, but Ritter is pretty sure the moment will be enough to get his team up for what they hope will be the night they win their second straight Ches-Mont title.

“I think, we just say it’s for the championship, and if you can’t get up for the championship game, you don’t belong in it,” said Ritter. “Little motivation needs to be had, especially against Coatesville, especially being the rubber match, them beating us last week. We’ll be ready, and so will they.”