City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
--

At halftime of a five-point game, Chester’s coaching staff pointed a statistic from the first 16 minutes.

“We were 1-for-11 from three in the first half,” said senior forward Marquis Collins. “So we basically said no more threes. Their tallest guy was only about 6-foot-6 and we knew we could get to the rim.”

That game plan was evident in a dominant second half for the Clippers, who pounded the ball inside, got most of their points from the paint and the foul line and pulled away for a 74-49 victory over Spring-Ford in a meeting of District 1 teams at Cheltenham High School. Chester advanced to the Class AAAA PIAA quarterfinals, where it will face Reading on Saturday.

After shooting just 35.4 percent from the floor in the first half – which included that lousy 1-for-11 mark from distance – Chester got much more high-percentage looks in the second half. The Clippers (23-7) went 17-for-28 from the floor over the final 16 minutes, and just five of those shots were from beyond the arc (two of which found the bottom of the basket).

After Spring-Ford was able to get back in the game thanks to the long ball before halftime, Chester had eventually bullied its way to a 15-point advantage early in the fourth quarter.

“My second unit came in the game flat and you give a team a chance to stick around, they hit shots,” Chester coach Larry Yarbray Sr. said. “When we started imposing our will down low and getting easier shots, it was a different ball game. They had one or two guys with two and three fouls and we resorted to shooting threes? Why? There’s not really a shot blocker out there. We got away from what we wanted to do.”

And while the Rams – champions of the PAC-10 and the five seed out of District 1 – hung with the Clippers on the scoreboard for the first 16 minutes, Chester had a decided rebounding advantage the whole game.

With four players in its rotation hovering 6-foot-6 or taller, Chester held a 26-10 rebounding edge at halftime and ended with 48 boards to the Rams’ 20.

“Our deficiency this season was our lack of size, and it showed, especially in that second half,” Spring-Ford coach Chris Talley said.

Chester had five players grab at least five rebounds, and the team also had a balanced scoring attack that saw three players get into double-figures. Junior forward Jamar Sudan led the way with 15 points – 11 of which came before the half – and he pulled in nine rebounds as well. Fellow starting frontcourt mate Deshawn Hinson added 12 points, and the Clippers also got a 14-point showing off the bench from Collins.

Thirteen of Collins’ points came in the second half, and it was a welcomed sight to Yarbray.

“Most teams don’t have enough bodies to go down there and play that way,” the coach said of his bevy of big men. “Hopefully that turned the lightbulb on for Marquise. Because we tell him all the time to go down there and we’re a whole different team.”

Meanwhile, Spring-Ford’s season came to an end at 24-8. The Rams got a team-high 13 points from Cameron Reid and another nine and eight, respectively, from Nigel Cooke and Stone Scarcelle.

And while it looked as though Chester might steamroll the Rams for 32 minutes after opening a 19-9 lead in the first five minutes, Spring-Ford bounced back with some 3-pointers and made it a game – at least until late in the third quarter.

“We’ve done that all year. We got a resilient group; our guys always stick around,” Talley said. “That’s why we were in the position we were in. I’m very proud of them.”

~~~

Wednesday's Results

Class AA -- Second Round
Conwell-Egan 54, Minersville 51
Camp Hill 45, Wilkes-Barre Meyers 40
Mastery Charter North 85, Danville 52
Trinity 67, Parkway Center City 48
Aliquippa 56, Bishop Canevin 38
West Middlesex 55, Penns Valley 52
Lincoln Park 76, Washington 73
Quaker Valley 57, Greensburg Central Catholic 47

Class AAAA -- Second Round
Plymouth-Whitemarsh 58, Bangor 44
Simon Gratz 64, J.P. McCaskey 56
Parkland 54, Ridley 50
Roman Catholic 60, Central Bucks West 41
Reading 71, Emmaus 54
Chester 74, Spring-Ford 49
Carlisle 74, North Hills 69
Taylor Allderdice 75, Pine-Richland 60