City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
––

CHESTER — It had to be the Skittles.

As Jalen Harris was about to check in late in the third quarter of Chester’s tense District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal playoff game against Coatesville Friday night, he noticed one of his football buddies behind the scorer’s table crunching on some Skittles.

Harris furtively reached back and his buddy filled his palm with the popular sweets, which Harris quickly downed with a smirk on his face as he munched his way onto the court.

The 6-foot, 180-pound sophomore guard then proceeded to go on a sugar-rush explosion ,scoring nine of his career-best, team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter to lead the No. 4-seed Clippers to an exciting 67-64 victory over No. 5-seed Coatesville.

Chester (20-2) will now play at No. 1-seed Lower Merion, a 67-51 winner over Springfield (Delco.) in another quarterfinal, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. while No. 14-seed Garnet Valley will travel to No. 2 Henderson in the other district 6A boys semifinal game.

The Clippers’ victory over Coatesville comes in what may be called the “blue-blood bracket” of the District 1 Class 6A playoffs, vanquishing defending district champion Plymouth-Whitemarsh on Tuesday and Coatesville on Friday.

Chester’s “Get Back Tour” has also carried a familiar theme along the way: ferocious fourth quarters (whether sugar fueled or not), tenacious defense and seemingly someone new, other than Chester’s imposing UConn-football commit Dominic “Big Dom” Toy, coming to the bow to steer the Clipper ship.

This time, it was Jalen Harris, the twin brother of Daron, who played well in the end against PW on Tuesday.

The 14 points was a career best for Jalen, the two-year starting quarterback as a sophomore for the Chester football team which reached the PIAA District 1 Class 5A title game for the first time in school history.

He did not need to be saccharine-induced to perform the way he did when the game mattered most.

Chester was down for most of the game, trailing 38-28 with 6:35 left in the third quarter. But the Clippers kept hanging around, partly through their vaunted full-court pressure, partly due to their offense finding some cohesion. Chester’s first lead did not come until Jaseir Thompson’s 3-pointer with 2:01 left to play in the third, then the Clippers gave it right back to Coatesville.

That is when Jalen “Skittles” Harris arrived.

He nailed a 3 to tie the score 43-43 at the outset of the fourth quarter. Then after Toy blocked a driving layup attempt by the Red Raiders’ Dior Kennedy, followed by a Toy put-back on the other end, Harris followed with a steal-and-score that gave Chester a 47-43 lead with 5:37 left.

The Clippers never trailed again.

The secret?

The Skittles.

“I never scored 14 points before, so it might have been the Skittles,” said Jalen, laughing. “Really, we just wanted to play hard defense and get the ball back. The football players on this team never want to have that feeling again walking off after losing a district playoff game. That attitude is with a lot of us.

“I was a little angry at myself (after the PW game). I needed to make up for it. I am not superstitious. Maybe I might have more Skittles before games. This is a game we wanted for a while, ever since they did not let us finish.”

Jalen Harris was referring to the 66-62 Coatesville win at Chester on Jan. 26. The game was stopped with 1:35 remaining when Toy got tangled with Coatesville center Larry Brown. Some jostling took place. Punches were thrown. Players were suspended.

Double technical fouls were assessed, Toy and Brown were disqualified and the officials had to clear the gym of spectators.

There was a very touching moment in the final minutes of Friday's game. As a Chester player was on the other end of the court taking foul shots, Coatesville coach John Allen stood in front of his bench with his arm around Toy’s shoulder conversing with him.    

“Coach (Allen) is a class act, and he was just making sure I was good,” Toy said. “It is a respect thing, and I respect him and his team. He has a good team, and I wish them luck the rest of the way. I did want this game, a little more than anyone. I blamed myself the last time we played them. (It) feels good to win this.

“I had to have a calm attitude and stay the course.”

Chester coach Keith Taylor’s patience was tested last season. He vowed to right the program this season after the Clippers missed the district playoffs for the first time in 53 years last year.

“It’s why I call this the ‘get back year,’” he said. “I hit up the Harris twins last year, and they told us they would come out this year and I’m glad they came out, Jalen and Daron. They helped our defensive pressure. They came here, all our football players, came into this year with a winner’s mentality. They want to win no matter what.

“I have to give a shout out to Dominic Toy, because everyone was targeting him from the situation that happened last time against Coatesville. If the situation was handled the way they were supposed to handle it, when their guy did that to him, he would have never reacted that way. Tonight, Dominic handled himself like a gentleman.

“John Allen is a great coach and talking to Dominic is something great coaches do. But this one was big for us. Since we didn’t make the playoffs last year off some fluke stuff, people didn’t expect us to be here. We are getting back everything we want. Get it right, it is the ‘get back tour.’”

Taylor can go 10 or 11 deep. That has enabled the Clippers to make their late pushes. In the early stages of the season, Taylor felt some players were going solo, and he quickly put a stop to that. Against Coatesville, eight different Clippers scored, including Toy’s 13 and nine points each from Jaseir Thompson, Dante Atkinson, and Calvin Williams.     

As for Coatesville, the Red Raiders will regroup, after allowing Chester to hit 9 of 11 shots in the fourth quarter while going 8 of 15 themselves, though 10 of 23 for the second half.

The Red Raiders have qualified for the state playoffs and are in the playback portion of the district bracket.

“Hats off to Chester, we like to play fast, and when we attack, we score,” Allen said. “We didn’t run many plays, I’m sure they didn’t run many plays, but they played off the energy of the crowd and they made some big shots, which we knew they would. We trust our guys. We missed some shots tonight that we usually make. Credit to Chester.

“This was a great game. We would love to see them again. I made sure I spoke to Dominic. I am happy for the kid. What happened the last time should not be on an 18-year-old kid. He was cool. I like him.”

By Quarter
Coatesville (19-7): 21 | 13  |  9 |  21 ||  64
Chester (20-2):  14  | 12  |  14  | 27 ||  67

Scoring
Coatesville: Dior Kennedy 18, Zuri Harris 14, Amon Fowlkes 13, Marquis Peoples 8, Larry Brown 5, Will Fowlkes 2, Armon Shockley 2, PJ Miles 2.

Chester: Jalen Harris 14, Dominic Toy 13, Jaseir Thompson 9, Dante Atkinson 9, Calvin Williams 9, Dallas Thompson 5, Andre Brown 5, Daron Harris 3.

~~~

District 1 6A Boys

Quarterfinals (Fri., Feb. 23)
1) Lower Merion 66, 24) Springfield (Delco.) 51
4) Chester 67, 5) Coatesville 64
2) West Chester Henderson 68, 7) CB East 63
14) Garnet Valley 64, 6) Methacton 53

Playbacks (Fri., Feb. 23)
8) Bensalem 69, 16) Conestoga 51
13) Plymouth Whitemarsh 69, 12) Cheltenham 45
15) Downingtown West 53, 10) Perkiomen Valley 48
3) Spring-Ford 51, 11) Central Bucks West 43

Semifinals (Tue., Feb. 27)
1) Lower Merion vs. 4) Chester
2) West Chester Henderson vs. 14) Garnet Valley

Third-place playbacks (Tue., Feb. 27)
5) Coatesville vs. 24) Springfield (Delco.)
6) Methacton vs. 7) CB East

Playbacks (Tue., Feb. 27)
8) Bensalem vs. 13) Plymouth Whitemarsh
3) Spring-Ford 51 vs. 15) Downingtown West