City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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DOWNINGTOWN — Darren Domsohn has one of the youngest lineups in District 1. 

The Downingtown East girls’ coach rolls out a starting lineup of one junior, three sophomores and a freshman; when he goes to his bench, it’s to bring in even more underclassmen. And even though they’re not sure they can believe it themselves, it’s a group that’s quickly figuring out how to win — and how to win quite a bit. 

A 50-40 win over archrival Downingtown West on Thursday night moved the Cougars to 12-2 on the season and 3-2 in Ches-Mont National play. That’s already a four-win improvement over last season,

“I definitely did not think we were going to be 12-2, but we’re playing really well and we deserve it,” sophomore Charlotte Aldridge said. “We’re just playing as a team.”

Last year’s group finished 8-14, well outside the Ches-Mont and District 1 playoffs, the program’s first losing season in at least 16 years. The summer and fall seemed encouraging for Domsohn, the third-year head coach knowing he had a team that was incredibly young, but also talented. 

Alridge, a 6-foot-tall wing who was pressed into point guard duties a year ago, was one of several returning players, along with classmate Grace Hodges and junior point guard Jordyn Daniels, who missed all of 2022-23 with a knee injury. Freshman guard Kendall Chiavelli looked ready to jump right into a significant role, with Strath Haven transfer Chloe Hunold, another sophomore, another quality addition.

“Our group is very young, so we’re all friends with each other and we’re just that correlates on the court,” Aldridge said. “It’s just so much fun to be a part of, because we’re playing well and beating teams, and winning is fun.”

It didn’t take long for the Cougars’ preseason momentum to translate; when they beat Ridley on Dec. 5 to move to 3-0 on the season, that was already more consecutive wins than they’d strung together all last year. A 33-point win at Phoenixville two days after that was another eye-opener. 

The only two setbacks have been a one-point home loss to Ches-Mont National leader West Chester East on Dec. 12 and a nine-point loss at Coatesville on Dec. 21. Thursday night’s win made it four straight for the Cougars, who are still very much in the hunt for a division title and spot in the Ches-Mont playoffs, not to mention a top-eight seed in the District 1 6A playoffs if they finish the season as strong as they’ve started it; they were ninth in the rankings entering Thursday night.

Keeping the win streak going will mean winning on the road; the next four come away from East, including a trip to division leader West Chester East (8-3, 4-1) next Tuesday, after a non-league game at Owen J. Roberts on Saturday.

“The experience our players gained last year is starting to translate,” Domsohn said. “I think they’re playing with a little bit more confidence, and I think experience has helped them. They still have a long way to go and a lot more to learn, but I think some of the trials and tribulations that we faced a little bit last year has helped some of that this year.”

It helps that the only freshman wasn’t super-new to the group, either. Chiavelli has been coming up to the high school since her seventh grade year, the 5-8 shooting guard going to open gyms and shootarounds with her future varsity teammates, building some chemistry ahead of her arriving at East this fall.

Finding immediate success wasn’t planned, but she admitted to hoping she would start as a freshman, something she earned in her first game and hasn’t relinquished.

“I couldn’t imagine anything else, I couldn’t imagine being on another team or being with other people,” she said. “I love this team, I love this sport, I love everything about it.”

Downingtown East looked like a team who knew how to close a game out on Thursday, overcoming a halftime deficit and then a push from Downingtown West to emerge with the 10-point win. 

The Whippets (9-4, 3-2) took a 22-17 lead into the half but the Cougars quickly jumped ahead in the third, going up 31-25 after back-to-back 3-pointers by Chiavelli and Hunold. Downingtown West closed out the quarter with its second buzzer-beater of the afternoon, Rachel Schuda’s 3-pointer cutting it to 35-33 heading into the fourth.

That’s where the winning lessons East has been learning paid off. The Cougar defense turned up down the stretch, forcing 10 second-half turnovers (15 overall) as they came up with one steal after another in the fourth quarter, turning enough of them into buckets the other way to go up seven with four minutes to go.

Chiavelli, whose game-high 17 points were two off her season high, knocked in three 3-pointers, including a dagger off a feed from Hunold (8 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals) to put Downingtown East up 43-33 with 2:40 to play.

“I wasn’t expecting it to go in, to be honest,” she admitted afterwards.

As her confidence grows along with her team’s, it’s likely she —and they — won’t feel quite that same way about the next one. Soon enough, they’ll expect success.

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By Quarter
Downingtown West:   8   |  14  |  11  |   7   ||  40
Downingtown East:   12  |   5   |  18  |  15  ||  50

Shooting
Downingtown West: 14-52 FG (8-23 3PT), 4-8 FT
Downingtown East: 15-48 FG (5-17 3PT), 15-25 FT

Scoring
Downingtown West: Hayden Blair 12, Ellen Dexter 8, Caitlin Grant 7, Liv Young 5, Rachel Schuda 4, Kelsey Meenan 3, Bridget Rymer 1

Downingtown East: Kendall Chiavelli 17, Grace Hodges 10, Charlotte Aldridge 10, Chloe Hunold 8, Jordyn Daniel 3, Izzy Haag 2