City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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WARMINSTER — Marquis Peoples doesn’t have some of the familial connections to the Coatesville boys basketball program that some of his teammates do.

Growing up in the area, he was still familiar with the hoops tradition at the District 1 powerhouse and knew he wanted to help continue it one day.

Peoples waited until last season for his turn on the varsity squad — a key piece in the rotation as a junior for a state playoff team. Though still not one of the team’s stars, he’s a senior starter taking opportunities as he gets them.

The 6-foot-2 guard exploded for 21 points in Saturday’s 60-56 comeback win over St. Joe’s Prep at the Diane Mosco Shootout at Archbishop Wood High School.

“(My role is) definitely expanding more this year,” People said. “I’m getting more comfortable and I’m just playing more and I’m making more shots.”

Peoples had just two points in the first half Saturday. His team trailed 31-21 at the break. He came out of the locker room and ignited the Raiders' comeback.

A 3-pointer by Peoples cut the deficit to three around the midway point of the third. Coatesville senior Dior Kennedy (11 points) pulled up for a deep two to give the Raiders their first lead. 

After St. Joe’s Prep retook the lead, Peoples buried a triple at the buzzer to send the Raiders into the fourth quarter with a 43-41 advantage. He made five 3s in the game, including four in the third quarter.

“I would say I’m a rhythm shooter,” Peoples said. “Once I get in a rhythm, it’s hard for me to miss and I feel like I can’t miss. I just keep shooting and shooting and shooting.”

Peoples had 14 of his 21 points in the third quarter, his shooting flipping the game on its head. Coatesville built its lead as large as eight in the fourth.

“When they (St. Joe’s Prep) had their guys hot, the game was different,” Coatesville head coach John Allen said. “He’s the one guy for us who can really open a game up. He gets forgotten. He’s like the fourth guy, fifth guy on our team. … What makes us a good team is when we have everybody clicking.”

St. Joe’s Prep junior Jordan Ellerbee (15 points) got hot in the closing seconds of the fourth to cut his team's deficit to one with 5.2 seconds left. Coatesville put the game away when senior Zuri Harris tossed a go-route to senior Amon Fowlkes for an and-one that pushed the lead to four.

Fowlkes led the offensive charge alongside Peoples with 18 points for the Raiders. Junior Jaron McKie added another 20 for the Hawks. 

Peoples had a big rebound and went 3-for-4 from the free-throw line late in the fourth quarter. While he’s on the floor late in games this season, that wasn’t always the case last year.

He had to get taken out of the games for offense-defense switches. That was a focus heading into his senior campaign.

He’s seen himself take a step forward, particularly on defense, and knew he had to on a squad that uses its defense to take over games.

“It’s the biggest part of our game,” Peoples said. “We have to play good defense every game because we don’t have that much size, so the defense makes up for that.”

Allen’s known Peoples since he played in Allen’s Caching Victory youth basketball league in the Coatesville area as a youngster. He said Peoples is a "tireless worker."

He gives more credit to Peoples than just a defensive improvement this season. The Raiders are finding ways to feature him more, like running isolations for him on the offensive end.

“I think he’s one of the most underrated players in our area, him and Amon,” Allen said. “Dior and Zuri get a lot of the ink and the headlines, and rightfully so, but those two guys, without them we are not where we are.”

Peoples didn’t play AAU in July and didn’t see much time on the court even when he was playing in the spring and the summer. He hasn’t had many colleges hitting his phone, but watching a coach wait up for Peoples following Saturday’s win brought a smile to Allen's face. 

“He’s not an AAU player,” Allen said. “He’s a college guy, get into a set, movement. He’s not a person who can only practice once a week, twice a week.

“Everybody should be on him. He’s not recruited, forget about underrecruited, and he deserves to be.”

Coatesville entered the season as one of the Class 6A favorites in District 1 and one of the heavyweights in the Ches-Mont. The Raiders started out 2-0 against Warwick and J.P. McCaskey before losses to Constitution and Central York last week.

Allen’s squad turned things around this week with big Ches-Mont wins over Bishop Shanahan and Downingtown West and concluding with a victory over St. Joe’s Prep. Peoples is hoping it’s a sign that this senior group can leave its mark at Coatesville. 

“I grew up playing with most of these guys — Dior, Zuri — since elementary school,” Peoples said. “The chemistry was already built in then. … I wouldn’t want to win it with anybody else. I love these guys. I really do hope that we continue to go far, and I believe that we will go far.”

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By Quarter:

Coatesville: 10 | 11 | 22 | 17 || 60

St. Joe’s Prep: 18 | 13 | 10 | 15 || 56

Scoring

Coatesville: Marquis Peoples 21, Amon Fowlkes 16, Zuri Harris 7, Larry Brown, Will Fowlkes 2.

St. Joe’s Prep: Jaron McKie 20, Jordan Ellerbee 15, Olin Chamberlain 8, Jalen Harper 7, Matt Gorman 4, Jackson Maguire 2.