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District 1 5A: Rucker's big night gets Chester back into championship game

02/26/2022, 8:30pm EST
By Jerome Taylor

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)

CHESTER – When you have young former college basketball players on your coaching staff, sometimes you have to remind them to dial it back. 

Alongside Keith Taylor, Chester’s coaching staff has a lot of Chester-area basketball talent on it, from Shep Garner (Penn State) to Conrad Chambers (Millersville). As a result, his coaches often play against his current team in practice, and they occasionally play above the level that the Clippers will see at game time. 

“I had to jump on my coaching staff early in the week because I thought they put too much on the young guys,” Taylor said. 

“They were just beating up on them, so I had to tell them ‘Get y’all behinds off the court,’ and I put another five in there that’s going to play to their level and standards.”


Kevin Rucker Jr. had plenty to smile about after helping Chester back into the District 1 Class 5A final. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

However, the competitiveness of those practices is paying off for Taylor’s squad. After picking up their fifth straight Del-Val championship, the Clippers are now one win away from repeating as District 1 5A champions. 

The Clippers rode Kevin Rucker Jr.’s 27 point outing to a 56-43 semi-final win over Bishop Shanahan on Saturday afternoon.

The Clippers started cold against the Eagles, as they ended the first quarter behind 13-12. But with a reinvigorated defensive intensity and a scoring outburst from their sophomore, they prevailed. 

With about 2 minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Clippers got out of their full-court zone and went to a full-court man-to-man defense, and the game was more rugged as a result.

“It wasn’t so much of what the other team was doing, it was what we were doing,” Taylor said. “They handled our press well early, so we backed out of it and just went straight man-to-man and pressured the ball 94-feet, and that seemed to work for us. ”

The Eagles seemed sped up from that point, and though there were moments during the second half where they would pull within single digits, the game was in the Clippers’ control for the final three frames. 

Rucker’s scoring led the way; the 6-3 guard was getting to his spot to make turnaround jumpers, pull up 3-pointers and finished through contact several times to energize him, his teammates, and a mostly-filled Clip Joint. 

“Kev stepped in and played well and did what we asked him to do,” Taylor said.  “Being aggressive, going to the basket, playing defense and [he] went up there and made some foul shots for us, so he just had an all-around good game today.” 

“I really wanted to get to Temple because I really didn’t get to experience it last year because I was a freshman, and I didn’t really get in,” Rucker said. 

Rucker’s emergence during the 2022 postseason is a turnaround from where he was last year. As a freshman during the 2021 state tournament, he remembers missing an opportunity to secure a victory over Crestwood in the quarterfinals.


Rucker goes up for two of his 27 points in Chester's win over Bishop Shanahan. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

“In the game to play Archbishop Ryan [in the next round of the 2021 state playoffs], I got in, and I choked,” Rucker said. “This year, I’m a sophomore, and my team needs me, so I’m here for them.”

“It was a tough game against Crestwood, and we were looking for a shot towards the end of the game, and we put him in, and he didn’t take the shot,” Taylor added. “[The moment against Crestwood] was always on his mind, I think it bothered him a little bit coming into the year.” 

The Clippers went on to win that game against Crestwood, losing to Ryan in the state semifinals of an abbreviated tournament. And now the sophomore isn’t anything close to bashful when it comes to shooting. 

“He’s getting over that fear now. He has no problem shooting the ball,” Taylor said jokingly while comparing where Rucker Jr. is now to where he was as a freshman. 

However, the most important shots in this game didn’t come from the field but the foul line. 

After Shanahan’s Zane Domsohn – who finished with 20 points – completed a three-point play with under three minutes to play to make it a 43-39 game, Rucker Jr knocked down 3 of 4 foul shots in the final two minutes. 

The Clippers were also aided by clutch free-throw shooting by Breilynd White, who went 6-8 from the charity stripe in the game's final frame (he finished with 10 points; 8-10 FTs). 

Now the Clippers have a District 1 championship game to prep for against Radnor on Saturday, but first, Taylor wants his team to recover from this week’s game and practices. 

“We got to get some rest first. We pushed them a lot yesterday in practice,” Taylor said. “Then we got to look at Radnor, dissect them, see what they like to do and continue to work on our game as we prepare for the state tournament once we get this game out of the way.” 

By Quarter
Chester:       12 |   16   | 9  |  19 ||  56
Shanahan:   13  |   8  |  8 |   14  ||  43

Scoring
Chester: Rucker 27, White 10, Freeman 8, Lowrie 5, Jerkins 4, Womack 2

Bishop Shanahan: Domsohn 20, O’Laughin 11, Federico 5, Kapczynski 3, Rodner-Tims 2, Scaggs 2 


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