City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Danny DiBeneditto promised his dad a special birthday present on Tuesday night.

What the Bishop Shanahan senior had in mind was a win for his Eagles in a Ches-Mont league rivalry game against Coatesville. What he provided was even better.

DiBeneditto’s key 3-pointer with under three minutes left was the biggest that Shanahan hit all night in a 49-42 win over the Red Raiders.

It’s not as if Shanahan didn’t know it could beat Coatesville, having won the home matchup last year as well. But an overtime loss to the Raiders in the 2017 Ches-Mont championship game had stuck with the Eagles all offseason.

They didn’t want to let their first opportunity for revenge go to waste.

“A lot of our guys have been thinking about that since we lost last year, I know Joe O’Malley has the article from the Ches-Mont championship game as the lock screen on his phone,” DiBeneditto said. “So we haven’t forgotten about that, and it does feel good tonight.”

Shanahan (3-1) was ranked No. 8 in the state’s 5A classification in the latest rankings; Coatesville (3-3) was No. 4 6A in the preseason but dropped out of the rankings after a 2-2 start.

Of Shanahan’s five starters Tuesday night, DiBeneditto was the only one who wasn’t in the Eagles’ top six minute-getters a year ago.

His back-breaking triple came off a feed from junior guard Phil Chenard, who was on the JV squad a year ago. That two unlikely heroes rose up to help Shanahan win an important early contest is a good sign early for a team that has hopes of winning the Ches-Mont as well as District 1 5A championships.

“We have nine guys that we expect to make a play when they’re asked to go in the game, they’re expected to play and they can play and be one of the five that are functioning,” Doyle said. “So if their number is called, their turn to step up, we’ve got nine guys that really are ready to do that when it happens. Fortunately tonight, they were able to do that.”

Though the season is only two weeks old, the atmosphere brought a playoff intensity to Shanahan’s gym, with equal amounts of fans from both sides. The emotion came to a head with under two minutes remaining in the third quarter, when some shoving on the court turned into a scrum of about 25 players, coaches and even a few fans on the court; cooler heads prevailed before it got physical, but Coatesville sophomore DaPree Bryant as well as an assistant coach from each team were all ejected for leaving the bench.

Also picking up a technical for his involvement was Shanahan senior big man Kevin Dodds. That proved costly when Dodds fouled out in the final minute of the third, leaving the Eagles without their Gannon (Pa.)-bound 6-6 post presence, who had accumulated six points, seven rebounds, two assists, a steal and block up to that point.

Stepping up big-time were junior guard Joe O’Malley, who finished with 10 points, 12 rebounds and three assists, and senior forward Thomas Ford, who complemented eight points with seven boards and four assists. Senior point guard David Angelo also had eight points, plus three steals.

“(Dodds) is our best player but we have a few returning guys,” Doyle said. “We always talk about five, not one, no matter how good the one player is, you can’t function without the other four and the whole team.

“We have very unselfish guys besides Joe that will step in and do whatever. He stepped up big-time tonight to help us and keep us moving forward.”

As a team, Shanahan had 11 assists on 13 baskets, and shot 18-for-25 from the foul line.

“We don’t really care about who’s scoring, individually,” O’Malley said. “We just want to play a team game, get each other buckets and get each other open shots, that’ll lead to a victory.”

Shanahan controlled the tempo almost the entire way through, opening up a 21-13 halftime lead, and the advantage reached as many as 13 in the third quarter.

Coatesville closed the third quarter strong after the brouhaha, getting within 33-27 -- but unlike in the league championship game, Shanahan didn’t fold.

Though the Eagles were clearly trying to run as much time off the clock as possible, they weren’t afraid to take open shots, scoring 16 points in the final quarter to take it home. DiBeneditto’s triple might have been the game-winner, but O’Malley, Ford and Chenard all hit shots in the final frame, along with the team going 7-of-8 from the line.

“We want to push and find our spots, but we want to be under-control,” Doyle said. “Last year, the big thing we talked about from the championship game last year is we didn’t finish...we played timid and scared and laid-back, we didn’t play the aggressive style we played in the first half, just like we did tonight.”

The Raiders, who finished as runner-ups in last year’s District 1 6A championship, were paced by 22 points from sophomore guard Jhamir Brickus, who was 8-of-13 from the floor. No other Coatesville player scored more than five points.

Coatesville won’t have to wait long to get its own chance at revenge; the two teams meet again on Jan. 23 at Coatesville’s gymnasium.

Both are counting on a third meeting down the road.