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Robertson delivers Downingtown East first ever district win

02/17/2018, 12:00am EST
By Ray Dunne

Senior Nate Robertson scored a career-high 15 points in Downingtown East's first district win. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Ray Dunne (@RayDunneBTB)
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Entering the week, Downingtown East was at full strength as it continued on in its pursuit of the school’s first ever postseason victory.

After failing to qualify for the Ches-Mont playoffs, the Cougars looked to have a good shot to claim that elusive victory came Friday night at home against No. 22 seeded Penn Wood in the opening round of District One 6A playoffs.

Then starting center Andrew King suffered an ankle sprain in a scrimmage midway through the week.

On top of that, starting guard Corey Hernandez was diagnosed with the flu on Thursday.

Down two starters, Cougars’ head coach John Goodman preached preparation and belief in one another leading up to the team’s biggest game of the season.

“Just be ready. Everybody’s going to play [and] I think I played all nine of our available players. They all played decent minutes.” Goodman said. “You’re going to have an opportunity and be confident, you’re good enough.”

With King and Hernandez both sidelined, senior forward Nate Robertson stepped into the starting lineup for just the second time all season.

After Tariq Kalim went down in the first half, Downingtown East was without three of its four leading scorers. The Cougars were going to need to depend on Robertson’s scoring ability to fill the holes in the lineup.

It wasn’t the prettiest start for the 6-foot-2 wing, who started 1-of-3 from the 3-point line in the first half for just three points as the Cougars engaged in a back-and-forth battle with the Patriots.

However, Robertson’s second half shooting lifted Downingtown East as he contributed a career-high 15 points to help the Cougars ultimately pull away to a 51-31 win over Penn Wood.

A self proclaimed “streaky scorer”, Robertson knocked down his first 3-pointer early on in the first quarter. In spite of that, he was relatively quiet until the second half where he was able to score with ease, knocking down five of seven shots from the field and scoring 12 points.

“After I hit the first three, it kind of felt good,” said Robertson. “It’s gonna fall so it’s always been my mindset, just keep shooting and if it doesn’t go in, just have a short memory. I just wanted to keep shooting tonight. After that first shot, I knew it was going to be a good night.”

On any given night, Robertson typically is the second or third option off the bench for the Cougars as a quality shooter who can also defend rather well.

That role isn’t exactly what Robertson envisioned for himself coming into the season and he admitted that there’s been times throughout the season where he thought he wasn’t playing up to his potential.

Even so, Goodman was pleased in the way the senior handled himself and took care of business when the team needed him.

“He’s just been a bench scorer for us and a guy that’s just worked his butt off,” Goodman said. “Just waited and waited and maybe nights he didn’t play as much as he wanted, but he’s just ready for the opportunity. You could just kind of see that he was ready tonight.”

Robertson wasn’t the only player who came up big for Downingtown East on Friday night. Fellow senior guard Malik Slay scored 14 points, secured eight rebounds, and had six assists in the win.

Aside from the two top scorers, every active player for the Cougars found themselves in the scoring column by the end of night. It was a true testament to how well this team can play at its best.

“Our motto the whole year has been ‘Sometimes you, sometimes me, always us’ so we knew some of us were going to need to step up and all of us came out ready to play today, we were ready,” Robertson said of the well-balanced attack.

The win tonight also was validation for Goodman, who has guided the program over the last six seasons and has them trending in the right direction moving forward.

Since Downingtown High School split into East and West in 2003, East has never been to the Ches-Mont playoffs or won a district playoff game. Both have been goals of the program since Goodman got there.

A year ago, the team sputtered to the finish, losing nine of their last 13 which included a district loss to Norristown in the opening round.

This time around, Downingtown East won eight of its last ten, and while they still couldn’t make the Ches-Mont playoffs, they did deliver the biggest win in program history on Friday night. Doused in water by his players after the game, Goodman knew the significance of what had just occurred.

“It’s hard not to get emotional because this is my sixth year in this program and we’ve had so many great players come through and so many great coaches come through and for us, we’re just like trying to get it,” Goodman said. “So for everybody that has been a part of this for the last six years, they’ve played a role in this, the administration, everybody. It was just kind of a weight off my shoulders.”

Now with the most wins (16) in a season, most league wins (eight) in a season, and the lone playoff victory in school history, this group will look to deliver the school’s first trip to states.

Standing in their way is a familiar foe, No. 5 seed Coatesville, which the Cougars split the season series with during the Ches-Mont regular season. The winner guarantees themselves a spot in the state bracket; the loser heads into playbacks, where it’ll take two more victories to get into the PIAA field.

When Downingtown East returns to Coatesville’s home court Tuesday night, Robertson knows that it’s going to make for another great game.

“We went there first and we beat them so we know they are going to come out really tough and really hard and be ready to play,” Robertson said. “So we just have to come out with a chip on our shoulder and be ready to play.”


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