City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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CHESTER, PA — Dominic Toy is reluctantly counting down the days and the games. Chester’s 6-foot-5, 225-pound bull in the middle knows the end is near. He has his college ticket stamped for Connecticut, where he is projected to be a tight end. In the meantime, he is trying to close an amazing athletic high school career by getting something on the hard wood that he came inches from grasping on the football field: a District 1 championship.

Toy also knows his days of playing organized basketball are numbered.

Toy put on a little show for one of his future coaches Thursday night, blocking a potential game-winning shot in the waning seconds to preserve Chester’s dramatic 47-46 victory over visiting Chichester.

Playing in front of a UConn assistant (football) coach, Toy scored a team-high 16 points for the Clippers, who improved to 12-1 overall and remained undefeated in the Del-Val League at 3-0, while Chichester, the defending league champs, fell to 7-8 and 2-2 in the league, despite a brilliant performance by Carlton Gordy, who dropped a game-high 23 points.

This was a critical win for the Clippers, who lost taut games like this last year. Toy almost willed Chester to win. The Clippers trailed 46-45 with 37 seconds left to play, when Dante Atkinson nailed a pair of free throws for the eventual game-winning difference.  

But it was Toy who flashed from seemingly nowhere to come across the lane to swat away Dilyn Butler’s layup attempt with 4.5 seconds left to play.

“This feels pretty good, and I know I’m coming to the end with basketball, and even though I’m a football player, it’s why I’m taking basketball far more serious this year,” Toy said. “In football, we reached the [District 1 Class 5A] finals and came up short [to Strath Haven]. I want to do this with these guys and win [the 6A title] in basketball.

“We had a bad year last year. That has stayed with us. I’m more aggressive this year. I’m going after it. We have extra motivation and I’m trying to cherish every moment with my brothers. Chichester played hard. I respect them. We’ll see them again and I had to put on a good show for my UConn coach.”

Toy said he is bracing himself for that basketball game, though for the time being, he is earning special recognition from his Chester hoops family, earning what coach Keith Taylor is awarding after each Chester win this season, the Chester Hard Hat.

“We didn’t win games like this last year, because we didn’t know how to and some folks were selfish last year,” Taylor said. “This year, it’s different. These guys want to win and they’re together. We’re playing with a lot of emotions. (Chichester coach Clyde Jones) did a great job of coaching.

“He placed his kids in a position to win. But Dominic is playing out of his mind. The way we play, fats and hard, we’re going to have to play hard inside like that. We need our guards to play smarter. They didn’t play smart tonight, but our big men were excellent.

“With Dominic, that’s the plan to see him play on Sundays, and he’s going to do it. He got our hard hat award for tonight.”

Atkinson did come up with clutch points for Chester down the stretch, offsetting what Gordy was doing to the Clippers from distance, scoring 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.

“It was a hard fight last year, we did lose games like this last year, but this year, we’re a unit, passing the ball, working as a team,” Atkinson said. “Chichester beat us twice last year. Winning this game shows we can do it. We can win close games.”

Chichester, on the other hand, has been losing close games. But the Eagles are drastically improved since as recent as two weeks ago. Gradually, Jones, who notched his 400th career coaching victory earlier this week, is find value in players like Butler, Jayan Harris and Hamza Clay.  

“Chester is always a great place to play, and you always try to get the best out of your kids,” Jones said. “We’ve been working on closing games, games like this. I like where we are going, but as we gain experience in games like this, it is helpful. We were hoping to contain tempo as much as we could, and Dylin is coming on.

“I believe he has the ability to drive the car. He gets us in stuff and has a high basketball IQ. The guys support him and trust. This is a matter of time.”

By Quarter
Chichester:  12  |   5   |  18  |  11  ||  46
Chester:       8   |   8   |  20  |  11  ||  47

Scoring
Chichester: Carlton Gordy 23, Dilyn Butler 7, Antonio Posey 6, Jayan Harris 4, Hamza Clay 2, Kayron Kinney 2, Siddiq Oglesby 2.

Chester: Dominic Toy 16, Dante Atkinson 11, Calvin Williams 8, Jaseir Thompson 6, Dallas Thompson 5, Andre Brown 1.

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, 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.