City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It had not been Amon Fowlkes’ best night. 

He delivered when it mattered. 

The Coatesville senior had a rough night shooting the ball in the Ches-Mont semifinals, making three of his first 12 shots going into overtime against Downingtown West in a tough, physical contest. 

But with the seconds ticking down under 10 and with the ball in his hands, Fowlkes attacked the bucket and scored, his layup with 3.8 seconds remaining the game-winner, sending Coatesville to the championship with a 57-55 victory on Friday night.

Bishop Shanahan, which beat Sun Valley 41-39 in the night’s earlier semifinal, awaits in Monday’s championship game (WCU, 7:30 PM).

In a tie game in the extra session, Coatesville ran the clock down into the final 10 seconds, called timeout to inbound under its basket. Fowlkes took the pass in the corner opposite his bench, drove around to the top of the key and then towards the basket, holding off a defender with his body as he used his left hand to get the ball up and in.

“It was kind of a broken-down play and I knew I had the guy on my hip and I just went downhill, what I do best,” the 5-foot-10 guard said. “(Coatesville coach John Allen) said ‘go at ten,’ but I went at eight — close enough.”

Fowlkes, a normally-sharpshooting point guard, had a strong overall game with six rebounds, five steals and three assists. But he was having issues putting the ball through the bucket through the first 32 minutes and change against Downingtown West; not not had he missed all three of his 3-point attempts, but he was 2-of-6 from the foul line. 

None of that mattered with the game on the line. 

“My team puts a lot of confidence in me,” he said. “They’re just telling me to stay poised, your time’s going to come, and that’s what I did, and my time came.”

Coatesville (18-5) won the two previous meetings between the teams, 74-47 at Downingtown West on Jan. 3 and 64-53 on its home court on Jan. 28. The Whippets made it clear they were as ready as ever, fighting off every challenge the Raiders threw at them, getting 16 points from star senior Donovan Fromhartz on his future college court and nine points each from junior Brady Moore and sophomore Isaiah Hicklen and Brendon Good-Kimble. 

The teams traded leads all throughout the second half. Downingtown West (14-9) had several leads late but none larger than three points. The last of those came with 35 seconds left after Hicklen split a pair from the line, his floater a minute earlier breaking a tie. 

Freshman wing Colton Hiller, the 6-5 baby-faced 14-year-old who’s been one of the top high school rookies in the region, found himself at the line with 18 seconds left, fouled on a 3-pointer from the top of the key. All three hit nothing but net, capping off a 20-point outing which saw him hit three 3-pointers and go 5-of-5 from the line. 

“I just took a deep breath and went back to my mechanics,” Hiller said. “The second one was the hardest, but the first one and last one were easy.”

Where Coatesville made foul shots late, Downingtown West didn’t. The Whippets were 8-of-18 from the foul line in the second half, 15-of-28 for the game.

Where Coatesville made foul shots late, Downingtown West didn’t. The Whippets were 8-of-18 from the foul line in the second half, 15-of-28 for the game. 

The No. 18 team in the unofficial District 1 6A rankings as of Saturday night, Downingtown West is in line to play at No. 15 Chester (15-7) in the opening round. 

Coatesville, No. 2 in those rankings, will get a bye in the opening round. While things are always liable to shift before brackets come out on Monday, the Raiders are currently in line to face the winner of No. 10 Spring-Ford and No. 23 West Chester Henderson in the second round. 

First, though, comes the Eagles on Monday night, a game that was moved up from Tuesday night in case of a potential snowstorm that evening. Another National division squad, Shanahan has won 15 of 17 games after a 1-6 start, but two of those losses came to Coatesville: 63-34 in December when Shanahan was shorthanded, and 67-64 at Shanahan on Jan. 14. 

The first things that came to Fowlkes’ mind when he thought about Shanahan was senior forward Sean Griffin — who had a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double against Sun Valley — and the Eagles’ zone defense. That, he said, which require a focus on “swinging the ball, staying confident in each other, having trust in each other. Just remembering the gameplan, sticking to what’s working and not to get too far ahead of ourselves. Stay with what’s working.”

By Quarter
DW: 15  |  10  |  13  |  14  |   3   ||  55
CV:  19  |  10  |  11  |  12  |   5   ||  57

Shooting
DW: 19-44 FG (2-12 3PT), 15-28 FT
CV: 19-52 FG (5-17 3PT), 14-19 FT

Scoring
DW: Donovan Fromhartz 16, Isaiah Hicklen 9, Brendon Good-Kimble 9, Brady Moore 9, Jayden Weishaar 6, Amari Ross 4, Aidan Critchley 2

CV: Colton Hiller 20, Amon Fowlkes 13, Lsrry Brown 13, Nasir Williams 5, Max Hiller 4, Chris Allegra 2