City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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WEST CHESTER — The Ches-Mont Challenge took over West Chester University’s Hollinger Gymnasium on Thursday night with a trio of Ches-Mont teams taking on quality opponents. 

Here’s a brief recap of each game along with standouts from the evening:

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Game One: Cardinal O’Hara 52, Downingtown West 46

Cardinal O’Hara didn’t particularly shoot well, had its Division I recruit shut down for most of the game and saw Downingtown West close a 17-point third-quarter gap to take the lead in the fourth.

So, all things considered, Lions coach Ryan Krawczeniuk was pretty happy to be walking out of Hollinger with a win.

“That’s what we preached to these kids — if you play hard and you’ll defend, we have a chance to win every single night, whether we make shots or not,” he said. “It just so happened tonight we couldn’t buy a bucket, we just had to gut one out.”

O’Hara (2-0) got 13 points from Lymir Green and a nine-point, eight-rebound, five-block outing from sophomore Malik Brown. Milak Myatt had eight as he was held to just four shots overall by a Downingtown West (0-1) defense determined to stop him from getting free.

Despite that, O’Hara opened up a 24-12 halftime advantage, holding Downingtown West to 4-of-21 from the floor in the opening two quarters.

Downingtown West senior Donovan Fromhartz, face-guarded all game and held to three first-half shots, did all he could to bring the Whippets back in the second half, coming up with 24 of his game-high 30 points in the third and fourth quarters. That included a rhythm 3 buzzer-beater from half court to end the third quarter, as he went 8-of-8 from the floor in the third and fourth quarters (9-11 for the game). 

“Second half he really got going,” Krawczeniuk said of Fromhartz, who played for him this summer with East Coast Power’s 17U group. “And when a player of his caliber gets hot, there’s not a whole lot you can do, other than just double him and get the ball out of his hands entirely, but they had some other kids on the floor that could play as well. He was able to take advantage of our defense tonight, for sure.”

Fromhartz’s efforts helped Downingtown West close what had been a 33-16 gap in a hurry, the Whippets going up 37-36 midway through the fourth. But O’Hara was able to close the game out from the line in a foul-heavy game, going 10-of-14 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter to close it out. 

O’Hara junior Jack Quinn scored all six of his points in the fourth quarter, including going 4-of-4 from the foul line in the last minute. 

By Quarter
CO:  14  |  10  |  12  |  16  ||  52
DW:  7   |   5   |  16  |  21  ||  49

Shooting
CO: 18-47 FG (2-13 3PT), 14-22 FT
DW: 17-46 FG (2-4 3PT), 13-22 FT

Scoring
CO: Lymir Green 13, Malik Brown 9, Milak Myatt 8, Kahseem Bronzell 7, Jack Quinn 6, Edwin Ujor 5, Tygee Clark 4

DW: Donovon Fromhartz 30, Brady Moore 9, Ty Raines 4, Brandon Kimble 2, Amari Ross 2, Isaiah Hicklen 1

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Game Two: Malvern Prep 49, Unionville 39

Stuck in the mud somewhat battling a Unionville squad hitting just enough 3-pointers to stick around, Malvern Prep turned to its defense. 

A couple steals that became Marvin Reed buckets midway through the third quarter turned what had been a six-point Friars edge into an 11-point advantage. Malvern Prep managed to hold Unionville at arm’s length from that point, Paul Romanczuk’s squad generally doing a good job of frustrating Chris Cowles’ well-drilled offense.

“I knew coming in they were a dangerous team as far as how they shoot the ball, how disciplined they are,” Romanczuk said of the reigning District 1 5A champs, who feature four new starters from that title squad. “I know they lost a lot but winning is contagious and those guys at Unionville have done such a great job of setting up a culture where they expect to be competitive and win. And I thought they did that, they were ready. 

“I thought our pressure got to them, obviously, in the third, and as the game wore on.”

Reed, a speedy junior guard, finished with a game-high 14 points along with two assists and two steals; his classmate, Nick Harken, added 11 points, four steals, three rebounds and two assists, and senior forward Andrew Davis chipped in 10 points and five boards, all on the offensive end.

Malvern Prep forced 21 turnovers while committing just nine of their own, which along with 13 offensive rebounds allowed the Friars (2-1) to take 19 more shots than the Longhorns (1-1). 

“It first starts with Marvin, I think Marvin is the engine, he’s such a weapon defensively,” Romanczuk said. “But we don’t really have any holes defensively. You talk about a guy like [senior wing] Taig McErlane who can really defend, is strong and is tough. Andrew Davis, who we can put on really good wings and forwards because of his strength and his toughness and his relentlessness. And Nick is improving by leaps and bounds, not only offensively but defensively, too.”

Junior forward James Brenner, Unionville’s only returning starter, finished with 12 points and three rebounds as he battled foul issues. Senior wing Zach Dolce was 8-for-8 from the foul line to help him finish with 10 points.

By Quarter
MP:    15  |   8   |  12  |  14  ||  49
UHS:   9   |   8   |   7   |  15  ||  39

Shooting
MP: 19-45 FG (4-15 3PT), 7-11 FT
UHS: 11-26 FG (8-18 3PT), 9-10 FT

Scoring
MP: Marvin Reed 14, Nick Harken 11, Andrew Davis 10, Logan Chwastyk 7, Junior McFadden 4, Taig McErlane 3

UHS: James Brenner 12, Zach Dolce 10, Tommy McGinnis 8, Jack Robbins 3, Leo Lockwood 3, Mikey Niemkiewicz 3

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Game Three: Coatesville 55, Reading 35

Going into the fourth quarter, John Allen likes what he has: namely, Amon Fowlkes and Nasir Williams. 

The senior guards with a ton of shared varsity experience between the pair helped Coatesville close strong against Reading, turning a four-point edge going into the final eight minutes into a comfortable 20-point win. 

Coatesville won the fourth quarter 19-3, with Fowlkes (game-high 16 points) and Williams (15 points) combining for 14 of those as the Raiders (2-0) put their collective foot down over the closing eight minutes.

“I think our experience showed,” Coatesville coach John Allen said. “Our guards did a really good job, Amon and Nasir did a really good job. We really like that combination going into the fourth quarter.”

With Fowlkes racking up six steals and Williams adding three, Coatesville forced 24 Reading turnovers, including at least 11 in each half. 

The biggest sparkplug defensively for Coatesville was junior guard Chris Allegra, who came off the bench to contribute seven points, six steals, three rebounds and an assist.  Allegra hit a big 3 early in the fourth quarter to get Coatesville off to its big finish, but his energy defensively was notable, poking away the ball several times in scrums as well as getting deflections.

“He’s awesome,” Allen said. “He will always be the unsung hero for us. He’s awesome, and we can put him anywhere — we can put him at the point guard spot, in the middle of the zone, we can put him anywhere, he just does his job and doesn’t say much.”

Junior forward Larry Brown, who’s clearly hit the weight room in the preseason, added seven points, nine rebounds and three blocks. 

Senior wing Khalil Samuel led Reading with 10 points and eight rebounds.

By Quarter
Coatesville:  13  |  16  |   7   |  19  ||  55
Reading:      16  |   5   |  11  |   3   ||  35

Shooting
Coatesville: 20-51 FG (4-14 3PT), 11-22 FT
Reading: 12-38 FG (3-12 3PT), 8-11 FT

Scoring
Coatesville: Amon Fowlkes 16, Nasir Willliams 16, Chris Allegra 7, Larry Brown 6, Colton Hiller 6, Zeric Allen-Brown 2

Reading: Khalil Samuel 10, Jeremiah Camera 9, Nelson Malone 5, Xavier Beatty 4, Kenyon Sheriff 3, Ezra Jackson 2, Jamier Jacob 2

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