City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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COATESVILLE — John Allen does not want to jinx anything. The Coatesville legend is now in his third season as Red Raiders’ head coach. His team is off to its best start in his young coaching career and first 4-0 start in at least five years. But he will stop you right there when it comes to the “D Word.”

Any mention of that will have to wait another month, he says.

For now, Allen is willing to bask in easy nights like Tuesday, when he played everyone in Coatesville’s easy 63-34 victory over visiting Bishop Shanahan in the Ches-Mont League season opener for both teams.

Ten different players scored for Coatesville, which is 4-0 overall and has started the season with victories over defending PIAA District 1 Class 6A champion Lower Merion, Reading, Conestoga and now Shanahan (0-4).

The Red Raiders were led by freshman Colton Hiller, who dropped in a game-high 13 points, followed by Nasir Williams’ 12 and Armon Shockley’s 10, while Shanahan was led by junior Andrew Corcoran’s team-high nine.

Allen rotated his subs in early. Many players got quality minutes.

Afterward, Allen was beaming. He likes the way his team has started the season. This is primarily a new team that he has pieced together. He is still working on rotations, and seeing what player combinations work best together.

But he is hesitant when he comes to looking too far ahead.

“This is my best start here, it’s why I’m so happy, can’t you tell (laughs),” Allen said. “We get reminded about the bigger picture ahead, and it’s why we try to make our practices even more difficult than games, so we can be better prepared. We know what is out there. I know what is out there. So, we are going to slow it down and take it game-by-game. Let’s leave out the ‘D word’ for now.”

The “D word” refers to the District 1 championship.  

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. He sees potential in his current squad. He is not yet ready to go talking about breaking a two-decade old championship freeze the program is in.

“Nah, we leave that alone, for now,” he said. “We want to keep everyone motivated. Everyone at the end at the end of the bench better play with as much energy as the starters on this team, and if they don't, they are in trouble. We will talk and think about district championships and talk about district titles a month from now. I don’t want to jinx anything.”

Allen likes this team’s energy. Everyone is involved. Even though the Ches-Mont League opener was easy Tuesday night, points were still left off the board in gimme buckets inside that missed, and there were some defensive rotations that could use some tightening.

Allen says he fights his players every day about the little things. But, he says, he will concern himself with battling complacency a month from now if the Red Raiders’ success continues going in this direction.

Last season, Coatesville won its first Ches-Mont League title since 2017 before reaching the District 1 and PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals.

What is markedly different was on display Tuesday night. The Red Raiders could easily nine to 10 players deep.

Coatesville got knocked out of the district playoffs last season by Chester in the quarterfinal round.

Shockley is determined not to let that happen this year.

“We are very confident,” he said. “Everyone on this team has talent, and everyone can play. We are putting the brakes on thinking ahead to the district playoffs. Right now, I like our defense and how aggressive we are playing. We keep attacking. Knowing how deep we are takes the stress off the starters.”

Against Shanahan, Coatesville got off to an 8-0 start and was never threatened. Shanahan showed some grit in playing for coach John Dougherty, playing hard. But Coatesville simply had too much firepower for the Eagles, with Hiller firing from outside, and Williams and Shockley driving the lane.

Red Raiders’ junior 6-foot-7 forward Larry Brown was hardly a factor in foul trouble early. Still, the Eagles could do nothing to fend off the Red Raiders’ aggressive defense.

Williams scored 10 of his 12 points in the second quarter.

“I like how competitive everyone is on this team,” he said. “We try not to look by anyone. It will take steps to where we want to go. I really think we can win it all. We have the talent and the depth. But being new, we are still trying to figure things out. We need to communicate better on defense and that will come. I like where we are, and we are only going to get better.”

By Quarter
Bishop Shanahan (0-4, 0-1 Ches-Mont): 9 | 8 |  13 |  4 ||  34
Coatesville (4-0, 1-0 Ches-Mont):  19 | 17  |  19  | 8 ||  63

Scoring
Bishop Shanahan: Andrew Corcoran 9, David Maddrey-Rylander 5, Ryan Ambrose 5, Luis Encarncion 4, Chase Nestor 4, Sean Griffin 3, Anthony Aquilla 3, Brian Donohue 1.

Coatesville: Colton Hiller 13, Nasir Williams 12, Armon Shockley 10, Amon Fowlkes 7, Brian Myers 5, Lawrence Brown 4, Jonas Chester 4, Tristan Jackson 4, Chris Allegra 2, Max Hiller 2.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an 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 BlueSky here.