City of Basketball Love

Andrew Hayn (@aghayn24)
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Last season, Coatesville shattered Unionville’s Ches-Mont conference championship hopes on their way to a run to the PIAA 6A state semifinal. The Raiders beat Unionville in the 2019 Ches-Mont final by four points, and Unionville was hungry for another shot. This year, they finally got revenge.

Unionville defeated Coatesville 70-62 Saturday afternoon to advance to their second conference championship game in a row. For senior Logan Shanahan, this moment was inevitable.

“We were there last year and we knew we could get back because we had a bunch of young players coming up who could play,” Shanahan, an Emory commit, said. “It’s just great that it’s finally official.”

That Unionville (17-6, 10-1), ranked fourth in the unofficial PIAA District 1 5A rankings, toppled Coatesville, currently sitting at sixth in the District 1 6A rankings, shouldn’t have been too big a surprise, considering recent history. Last week, Unionville suffered a 52-51 loss to Coatesville in the final seconds.

Head coach Chris Cowles knew his team was due for a win.

“They had to hit a buzzer beater to beat us last week on Saturday,” Cowles, in his third year as head coach at Unionville, said. “We had them beat a week ago, so we felt very confident that we could beat them tonight.”

That confidence showed in Saturday’s game, but the Raiders weren’t letting down easy. Coatesville senior Jhamir Brickus had 10 first-half points, and Unionville was well aware of the damage he can do.

“You have to try to give him different looks, but at the end of the day, he’s going to kind of do what he wants,” Cowles said. “We just had to attempt to make him uncomfortable.”

However, Brickus could not keep up with Unionville’s accuracy from 3-point range. In a fast-paced game with a lot of offense, Unionville went 9-11 from beyond the arc in the first half, including 3-3 from Shanahan, to jump out to a 43-36 halftime lead. Shanahan finished with 20 points on 8-10 shooting, 4-5 from three point range.

“I hadn’t been shooting too well the past couple games, so I knew I was due for a good game shooting-wise,” Shanahan said. “We pulled it together, held the ball down the stretch and got it done.”

Holding the ball proved effective for Cowles' bunch late in the game. Unionville only registered 12 field goal attempts in the second half, moving the ball effectively on offense. On the other end of the floor, they disrupted Coatesville’s shooting, holding them to 3-12 shooting in the third quarter, extending their lead to 10 going into the fourth.

The Raiders began to make a comeback thanks to back-to-back threes from sophomore Jaeden Brickus, cousin of Jhamir Brickus and Coatesville senior DaPree Bryant, bringing the game within two points.

However, Unionville’s ball control was relentless, at one point killing off 84 seconds passing the ball around. Coatesville eventually got into foul trouble, and Unionville converted their free throws, shooting 10-14 from the stripe.

Unionville senior John Passarello went 7-8 himself in the fourth quarter, with his only miss resulting in an offensive rebound and layup from senior Bryce Whitlock. Unionville’s incredible shooting percentage and time management played a huge part in pulling out the victory

Cowles praised his team’s work ethic and passion, saying it makes his job more enjoyable.

“These guys are so connected. They’re such high character human beings, and they’re also really good at basketball,” Cowles said. “When you have that combination, it’s really great because you get excited about film sessions, you can speak basketball language and they understand it.”

Now, Cowles and his squad prepare to face West Chester East, led by Delaware commit Andrew Carr, who registered 26 points and 5 blocks in East’s semifinal win over West Chester Rustin. Shanahan is very familiar with Carr, as the two played together in AAU for East Coast Power, and he knows his team has a handful to deal with.

“There’s not too much you can do to stop him, you can only slow him down,” Shanahan said of Carr. “Our coach always has a great defense and we have great players. I’ll be on him and I’m sure we’ll do some other stuff too.”

Cowles, who served as West Chester East’s head coach for two years prior to Unionville, plans to stick to what’s been working for his team the entire season, as it said on his Unionville polo during Saturday’s game: Max Out.

“The message is going to be to give max effort and max unselfishness,” Cowles said. That’s our foundation and principles, and that guides us in everything we do.”

Unionville and West Chester East will tip off Tuesday night at 7:30 in the Hollinger Field House at West Chester University.

By Quarter
Coatesville:  19  |  17  |   9   |  17  |  62

Unionville:    19  |  24  |  12  |  15  |  70

Shooting
Coatesville: 26-53 FG, 4-15 3PT, 4-7 FT

Unionville: 22-33 FG, 11-16 3PT, 14-18 FT

Scoring
Coatesville: Jhamir Brickus 18, Bryant 14, Proctor 13, Jaeden Brickus 11, Stewart 6

Unionville: Shanahan 20, Passarello 14, Kucharczuk 12, Whitlock 12, Neylon 10, Nowoswiat 2