City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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COATESVILLE, PA — It is easy to imagine the black banners hanging on the far wall of Coatesville’s gym screaming for company when no one is around. The dates, emblazed in white numbers, are evenly spaced: 1952, 1979, 1981, 2000 and 2001. It has been that long since the Red Raiders last won the PIAA District 1 title.

This version of the Red Raiders is looking to stop that drought—and a good indication that they are trending in the right direction came Tuesday night, when they hosted West Chester Henderson, the only team to hand Coatesville a Ches-Mont League defeat this season.

Behind balanced scoring, mixed in with a pinch of effective pressure, while playing without its starting big man, Coatesville avenged its one league loss with a rather easy 61-44 victory over the Warriors, who rank No. 2 in the District 1-6A power rankings after Tuesday's loss.

The Raiders had four of their five starters reach double figures, led by 5-foot-11 junior guard Amon Fowlkes’ 12 points, with 11 each from Dior Kennedy and Marquis Peoples, and 10 from Zuri Harris.

Coatesville was playing without its center, 6-7 sophomore Lawrence Brown, who was suspended two games due to a fourth-quarter altercation in the Chester game last Friday, which was suspended with less than two minutes remaining with Coatesville up five.

Brown was the first one his team called as soon as they reached the dressing room Tuesday night.

“In front of our home crowd, with the atmosphere, I think you can say this was our best game we have played this season, after having a good one in Chester in a game I felt we won,” Red Raiders’ coach and Coatesville legend John Allen said. “We’re hitting our stride right now. We’re learning how to win. We went through some ups and downs and our guys are doing a phenomenal job. I spoke to our guys about composure (after the Chester game). We have been through everything. We’ve been blown out. We have blown out teams. This is Year Two (of Allen’s coaching tenure) for everyone and everyone is working hard. We’re getting there.”

And Allen likes where his team is going. He certainly liked the way they followed the game plan against Henderson. Armon Shockley, a 6-3 junior, did a stalwart job stepping in for Brown, helping defend inside and rebounding.

Amon Fowlkes, the younger brother of senior guard William Fowlkes, goes back to seventh grade with Allen. He knows what his coach expects and he knows how to execute it.

What is going to be tough for anyone facing Coatesville is its ability for anyone to score at any given time. For example, against Henderson, Amon exploded for nine of his team-high 12 points in the second half.

The Red Raiders swung the ball patiently, then swung it back again, able to use all five options on the court to score.

“We believe in each other,” Amon said. “It took time to trust each other and learn from our mistakes along the way. It’s why we’re playing our game at the most important time of the year. We’re sharing the ball. We believe in our game. We knew Henderson was not going to back down. There was some payback there.

“We stayed together in the Chester game and we stayed together tonight against Henderson. When we play together, we are at our best.”

As of Tuesday night, Coatesville is the No. 6 in PIAA District 1 Class 6A, behind Lower Merion, Henderson, Chester, Spring-Ford and Bensalem.

Amon’s three-point play with 1:38 left in the third quarter opened what had been a competitive game, putting the Red Raiders up, 47-32. Coatesville reached 50 by the end of the quarter and Henderson never got within double digits again.

Henderson’s Nelson Lamizana and Nyle Ralph-Beyer shared game-high honors, each with 15 points, and Connor Fleet added 11.  

But the Warriors had trouble with Coatesville’s double teams, which led to 12 turnovers through three quarters to the Red Raiders’ four. Henderson seemed vulnerable down the middle, with a majority of Coatesville points coming on layups when the game was still competitive in the third quarter.

As the final seconds wound down, you have the sense these two teams will meet again, whether it is in the Ches-Mont Tournament championship or possibly a deep round of the District 1 6A playoffs.

Henderson got Coatesville the first time, 62-57, on Jan. 4. The Red Raiders repaid Henderson Tuesday night.

Let’s hope this goes another round.

By Quarter
Henderson: 14  |  12  |  10  |   8   ||  44
Coatesville: 12  |  20  |  19  |  10  ||  61

Scoring
Henderson: Nelson Lamizana 15, Nyle Ralph-Beyer 15, Connor Fleet 11, Jack Bell 2, Ryan Ranalli 1.

Coatesville: Amon Fowlkes 12, Dior Kennedy 11, Marquis Peoples 11, Zuri Harris 10, PJ Miles 7, Armon Shockley 6, William Fowlkes 4.

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.