City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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WEST GOSHEN — John Allen lugged it with him. The Coatesville boys basketball great and current Red Raiders’ coach was still fuming 24 hours later. Allen, in his second year as head coach, knows all about February and March basketball.

Allen was on the last Red Raiders team in 2001 to win the District 1 championship (then in Class 4A). He was the centerpiece on Coatesville’s last state championship team — in 2001. And he sees so much in his current squad that he is not about to let them squander their chance of possibly breaking a two-decade old championship freeze the program is in.

Not if he can help it.

So, after Coatesville played at West Chester East Tuesday night, Allen shut the dressing room door and let his team have it cold and brutal. He told them about tightening up, about valuing each defensive possession, each offensive possession, going after every rebound.

And this came after Coatesville’s Dior Kennedy dropped a game-high 21 points in the Red Raiders’ 66-53 victory over East. Allen did not get a chance to address his team after the Camden loss.

“I see so much in this team, but I was still angry over the previous night, when we lost at Camden (80-42), and I needed to let my team know that I’m focused — and they should be, too,” said Allen, who has rejuvenated the Coatesville program in a short period of time. “I wanted them to know every possession matters. I see so much in this team. All due respect to West Chester East, and coach Tom Durant, a great guy and great coach, but we have bigger, other goals and that means getting better.”

He sees the capabilities this team has. Coatesville (11-5, 6-1 Ches-Mont League)will play at Chester on Friday night and will then face another test and host West Chester Henderson, which handed Coatesville its only Ches-Mont League National Division loss (62-57 on Jan. 4), next week.

“If we can end this thing with some wins, we build confidence, but I am not happy about what happened in Camden. We’re better than that, and this was a step in a right direction,” said Allen, who won two District 1 titles his junior and senior years and the state championship his senior season. “We have to understand that we’re about to hit February, and then March — it’s championship time. January is not championship time. We have some things we need to fix.”

It did not look like much needed to be fixed Tuesday night. The Red Raiders never trailed, getting out to a 7-0 lead. But East (8-7, 3-4) showed great fight, especially behind the sharp shooting of Ryan Price, who finished with a team-high 18 including a rare four-point play in the third quarter, followed by another Price trey that pulled the Vikings to within 42-39 with 1:07 left in the quarter.

Under Allen, Coatesville does not rattle easily. The Red Raiders are like vipers. Blink, and the next thing you know, they have run off 10-straight points and taken command again.

That’s exactly what they did, reestablishing themselves in building a 52-39 lead with six minutes to play.

“Coatesville is good, really good, and tonight, we came out with energy and effort and the kids fought,” Durant said. “Coatesville is good with transition, and they killed us with long 3s. We took some chances, and we paid a little bit for them. We’re a scary team, and we can also be a team that falters. John is a great guy, and I have to really give him a lot of credit, because he’s brought that program back.”

Kennedy had to be reminded about how long ago it was since Coatesville last won a district championship. He was on the Red Raiders’ squad that reached last year’s PIAA Class 6A state quarterfinals, bowing to Catholic League powerhouse Archbishop Wood.

He likes Allen’s approach.

“We want to be coached hard, and you have to hear what coach says, whether we like it or not, because in the end, we’re all trying to win,” Kennedy said. “He is demanding, and he pushes us to our limit. As a team tonight, we stayed on top of things, and we closed out the game in the right way to come home with a ‘W.’”

Kennedy was supported by Zuri Harris’ 13 points, Amon Fowlkes’ 12 and Marquis Peoples’ 10.

By Quarter

Coatesville: 17 | 13 | 14 | 22 || 66

West Chester East: 12 | 9 | 18 | 14 || 53

Scoring

Coatesville: Dior Kennedy 21, Zuri Harris 13, Amon Fowlkes 12, Marquis Peoples 10, Lawrence Brown 6, PJ Miles 4.

West Chester East: Ryan Price 18, Peter Carr 7, Bryce Cox 6, Kyle Keefe 6, Kahseem Bronzell 4, Amari Williams 4, Josh Sherlock 3, Rex Watson 3, Becker Al-Tikriti 2.

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.