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Pennsbury lets one slip away as Chester captures fourth straight district title

03/01/2014, 12:00am EST

By Jeff Neiburg

Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg)
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The goal for Pennsbury all season was to get to Villanova and let the chips fall where they may.

For much of Friday’s District One Class AAAA final at the Pavilion, those chips were falling in the direction of the Falcons.

Until it all came crashing down.

Pennsbury led for more than 20 minutes of game-time, but when Chester guard Keyonte Watkins drilled an NBA-range triple with 2:10 to go in the fourth quarter, the Clippers went ahead for good.

A 16-4 run from Chester over the final 10:30 of the game allowed the Clippers to win their fourth straight District One title in a 52-49 win.

It’s Chester’s 11th title in the past 13 seasons, and 23rd total.

The win wouldn’t have been possible without the dominant performance put forth by senior forward Tyrell Sturdivant. The Stony Brook-commit went off for 17 points, 18 rebounds, five blocks and four steals.

Sturdivant had never seen the Pavilion floor in this setting, having come over to Chester from Glasgow High School in Delaware this season. He looked like a man who was hungry for a taste of the Chester tradition.

“I think it was just my effort and my mentality,” Sturdivant said. “I think I have the mentality to just go after everything and it just wills me to get every board.”

Pennsbury was paced by junior guard Cameron Jones‘ 17 points. Junior forward Derrick Woods added 10 points, eight rebound and four blocks.

Early on, it was all Falcons.

Pennsbury got a 3-pointer from Mekhi Bryant, and three more from Jones in the first quarter and jumped out to a 16-5 lead. The Falcons forced six Chester turnovers in the quarter.

A layup from Woods and another trey from Jones just a minute and a half into the second quarter had the score all the way up to 21-7. It was the biggest lead of the night for Pennsbury.

“We were so ready for this game, we all came out so strong,” Woods said.

What followed was a 13-0 run from the Clippers to get back to 21-20.

“We had too many turnovers early on. The kids got a little excited. When things were going [Pennsbury’s] way, they fell asleep a little bit,” Chester coach Larry Yarbray said.

“I think it was just more that we had to relax,” Sturdivant said. “It was nothing like they were better than us, I think we’re the best team in the state. We just needed to relax calm down and play our basketball.”

During this stretch, a common theme arose for the Falcons. Foul trouble.

At this point, with three minutes left until halftime, Woods had three fouls and Bryant had a pair. Pennsbury coach Bill Coleman called timeout to settle his team. With Woods on the bench, senior guard Nigel Johnson gave the Falcons a lift.

Johnson knocked down a pair of three’s in the final 2:30 of the half, including a desperation jumper from the wing right before the buzzer sounded – capping off a 10-3 run to end the half. Pennsbury led 31-23 at halftime after shooting 7 of 14 from behind the arc – they’d finish 9-for-22.

The foul problems continued for the Falcons in the third, and soon enough Bryant had four before the third quarter ended.

Pennsbury was forced to go to a zone defense, something it hadn’t done much of all season. This led to domination on the boards from Chester, and specifically Sturdivant.

“It’s harder to rebound out of a zone,” Coleman said. “We’re not a zone team. We tried to play it, and we got forced to play it. We may practice it once a week.”

“This was pretty much the first game we really played zone,” Woods said. “It was frustrating trying to stop them on the boards. We had to just stay with the flow, it was working at first but they just really beat us up on rebounds.”

With Bryant, a primary ball-handler, on the bench, turnovers and poor shot selection became a problem for the Falcons.

A combination of point guard Steve Ciotti and Jones was not enough against the Chester pressure. They needed an experienced third ball-handler who was stuck in his seat.

“The pressure did get to us a little bit in our point guard position,” Coleman said. “The ball got into the wrong persons hand at the wrong time. That’s what they wanted to do.”

Pennsbury kept fighting though, even with Bryant and Woods in foul trouble. Jones hit one of his game-high, five 3-pointers midway through the third quarter to push the lead back to 10 at 43-33.

From there, Sturdivant and the Clippers took over.

A 3-point play from Chester guard Mahir Johnson with 4:51 to got the score to 47-43 Pennsbury. The greater significance was the foul was on Woods, his fourth.

Just over a minute later, Bryant fouled out when he fouled Chester forward Brewster Ward.

Ward knocked down each free throw and the score was 47-all, tied for the first time since 0-0 and the first time Pennsbury hadn’t led since the 3:55 mark of the first quarter.

With the constant foul issues, Pennsbury was forced to continue to make in-game adjustments.

“We’re not the only team that should have adjusted tonight,” Coleman said. “It was very frustrating to watch when our guys were playing their butts off and their tails off… just say it was very frustrating to watch.”

Coleman was visibly frustrated with how the game was officiated after the game. Chester took 22 free throws and Pennsbury took just seven, including none in the second half.

Chester got to the line nine times in the fourth quarter.

Call it poor officiating if you will, but credit should go to the vicious Chester defensive effort.

After Jones started a torrid 4 of 6 from the floor, he would go just 2 of 11 to finish the game. Ciotti, who was forced to shoot more in Bryant’s absence, was held to 2-for-12 shooting.

The Chester defense held Pennsbury to just four fourth-quarter points.

After Watkins hit the 3-pointer to give Chester the lead, Jones would make a layup with 25.6 seconds left to get Pennsbury back to within one at 50-49.

Out of a timeout, Pennsbury fouled Sturdivant, who missed the front-end of a 1-and-1. The ball went out of bounds and possession went to Pennsbury.

But on the inbounds pass, Ciotti committed one of Pennsbury’s 14 turnovers to Watkins.

Now in the double-bonus, Watkins made one of two at the line to give Chester a 51-49 lead.

Then the play of the game happened. With less than 20 seconds to go, Jones drove to the basket to try to tie the game. He was met by Sturdivant, who swatted the attempted shot into the hands of his teammate Johnson, who was fouled.

But Johnson too would only make one of two, giving Pennsbury one last chance.

Desperation heaves from Jones and Ciotti clanked off front iron and the game ended.

“I knew it was going to be a game of runs,” Yarbray said. “I knew our kids were going to execute, you could see it in their eyes. I knew that they were going to come out and play hard. My mindset is to play hard for 32 minutes. If they make a run, we’re going to make a run.”

For Pennsbury, its first District One title in school history was in reach, until it wasn’t.

“It’s really painful to take it in,” Woods said. “We wanted to win, we really wanted to win. We were really looking forwards to this game. We had them on the ropes and they just pushed back. They’re a good team.”

Both teams advance to the PIAA Class AAAA State Playoffs starting next Friday. If both can continue to win, they’ll be on a collision course for a rematch.

Only the stakes will be higher in Hershey, with a state championship on the line.