City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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CHESTER — Kyree Womack is used to this by now. Chester’s 5-foot-10 junior guard has a flair for the dramatic. As a sophomore last year, his 3-point bank shot in the closing seconds of the PIAA District 1 5A championship against Radnor sent the game into overtime and eventually translated into a Clippers’ victory.

As a freshman, he stood there with ice water through his veins and drained three free throws to beat Crestwood in a state playoff game.

Womack did not need the magic wand Wednesday night against traditional area rival Coatesville in the Pete & Jameer Nelson Play-By-Play Classic at Widener University.

He just used a third-quarter eruption to push the Clippers (4-3) to their first victory over a Pennsylvania opponent this season, beating Coatesville, 69-64, on the strength of a game-high 24 points.

“This was a big win for our guys,” Chester coach Keith Taylor said. “We still had too many turnovers (15 total; 13 in the first half). We wanted to play at a fast pace and we wanted to play while we are tired. Once their guys got tired, they lost focus and turned the ball over. Once we decided to play smart and take care of the basketball, we were okay.”

Womack needed this game. He’s been gradually giving up a piece of his game for the betterment of the team.

“The last three or four games, he’s been playing the way we need Kyree to play for us,” Taylor said. “He’s a tough guy and we depend on him a lot. He’s the man. He should be getting more (college) looks than he is getting, but that will come in due time.”

And it will come once college scouts see games like Womack’s on Wednesday night.

Chester took a narrow 26-25 lead into halftime, though the Clippers had a tough time keeping the ball. The Clippers, who were giving up an average of 18 turnovers a game entering the contest, had turned the ball over 13 times by halftime.

The Clippers’ rapid pace didn’t help. Chester seemed to outrun itself at times, rushing shots and being careless with the ball.

Womack (above) twists his way to a second-quarter layup. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Womack had 13 by halftime and was the Clippers’ sole source of offense.

Coatesville turned the ball over five times in the first half, but the Red Raiders had their troubles shooting. Coatesville was 12 for 32 from the floor, though the Red Raiders’ pressure led to Chester’s undoing for a three-minute spell in the second quarter.

Leading 22-13 on a driving Womack layup with 6:15 left in the half, Coatesville went on a 10-0 run to climb back into the game.  

Then the third quarter came and Womack seemed to find another level.

“The first couple of games this year I was sick with the flu and my wind wasn’t there, so I wasn’t really into it,” said Womack, who is getting interest from Marist and a list that promises to grow. “Now that I’m getting my wind back, I still don’t want to force a lot of action. I want to get my teammates involved. I know when we have to come out with a ‘W’ I have to be patient and aggressive.

“We couldn’t go down to another PA team. In the third quarter, I came out aggressive and I had to come out the way I did. I came into this game with a lot of energy and tried to fill out the whole stat sheet.”

Coatesville got a team-high 21 points from Dior Kennedy (15 coming in the fourth quarter), 19 from Jeremiah Marshall and 14 from Zuri Harris.

There were six lead changes, four in the third quarter, until Larry Young’s layup with 5:31 put Chester up for good, 31-30. The Clippers then opened a 42-30 lead late in the third quarter and extended that to 58-43 with 4:32 to play.

But Coatesville coach John Allen saw something in the loss that he liked about his team—their fight. They battled back and got within 67-61 in the last minute but could not force Chester into a mistake. Chester’s Terrence Cobb closed with four free throws in the final 29 seconds to seal it.

“These are tests for the state playoffs, and we have to work on the small stuff, making layups, making free throws, stopping our man,” Allen said. “We’re not happy with the result, but we move on. I think we take from this that we can play with the best teams in the district. We’ll take this and continue to get better.”

As for Chester, the Clippers are expanding as a team and that means moving the ball, taking care of the ball and gaining trust in their teammates.

“This really helps us, and it helps our confidence,” Cobb said. “It was a great team win. We’ll feed the hot hand. Kyree worked hard this summer and our testimony to this is God first and hard work. We have to clean up the turnovers, that’s our top priority. We’re keying on that every day. We need to continue to play together as a team and we’re learning to adjust.

“At halftime, Coatesville sped us up, and we did make the adjustment. We’re Chester, we’re going to play up-and-down, but in control. We’re Chester, that’s the way we’re supposed to play.”

By Quarter
Chester (4-3):  13   | 13  |  19  | 24 ||  69
Coatesville (5-3):  10   | 15  |  10  |  29 ||  64

Scoring
Chester: Kyree Womack 24, Terrence Cobb 14, Dominic Toy 11, Donte Atkinson 8, Jerry Young 8, Breilynd White 2, Calvin Williams Jr. 2.

Coatesville: Dior Kennedy 21, Jeremiah Marshall 19, Zuri Harris 14, Marquis Peoples 6, Amon Fowlkes 2, Jake Van Duren 2.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.