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District 1 6A Semifinal Preview (Feb. 28)

02/27/2017, 12:30pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Chuck Moore (above) guided Coatesville to its first district semifinal since 2003. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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When Coatesville head coach Chuck Moore evaluates Cheltenham, his team’s opponent in the District 1 6A semifinals at Temple University’s Liacouras Center on Tuesday night, he feels like he’s looking in a mirror.

“We resemble each other in so many ways,” he said on the phone Sunday.

Start with the head coaches. Though Cheltenham’s John Timms, who played at William Penn HS in North Philly and then D-III Wilkes, is about seven years older than Moore, who graduated from Plymouth-Whitemarsh in 1997 and played at Seton Hall and Vanderbilt, both of them are energetic, engaging head coaches who have their teams playing hard no matter the circumstances.

Both Moore’s Red Raiders (22-4), seeded No. 4 in the 24-team tournament, and the No. 8 Panthers (18-6) love to get up in their opponents defensively, forcing as many turnovers as possible with a flair for entertainment on the fast break.

Two emotionally-charged, talented programs playing with different chips on their respective shoulders. In other words, don’t expect either to go quietly into the North Philadelphia night.

“It’s going to be an uptempo game with a lot of intensity,” Moore said. “They get up and down, we get up and down.

“But quite simply it’s going to be a war in my opinion, last man standing.”

Both teams are making their first district semifinal appearance in over a decade: Cheltenham hasn’t been since 2005, Coatesville since 2003. The Red Raiders are chasing their first district title since 2001, the same year they won a state championship; the Panthers haven’t captured a district title since the 60s.

This will be the the first time Timms and Moore will be coaching against each other.

“I just know him from watching from afar, I know the wars he’s been in with P-W, I know how much he’s built that program since he’s first gotten there, and again those players play with the same intensity that he coaches,” Moore said. “Much respect from afar on what he’s been able to do.”

Moore’s alma mater takes on Abington in the first of the two semifinals at 6:00 PM, Coatesville and Cheltenham is scheduled for a 7:30 PM tip.

The one advantage Cheltenham might have on Coatesville is its experience, both overall and playing against similarly-energetic teams.

The Panthers, playing in the Suburban One League, have gone up against the likes of Plymouth Whitemarsh (twice) and Abington in the last month, while also taking on Hatboro-Horsham, Archbishop Carroll and several others during the regular season. They’re led by 6-3 senior Trevonn Pitts, relying on a trio of talented juniors -- 6-5 wing Jack Clack, 5-10 point guard Ahmad Bickley and 6-3 wing Rodney Carson -- heavily for production as well.

Coatesville played two very athletic teams in P-W and Reading to open the year, losing both games, but a team that starts a freshman (Jhamir Brickus) at point guard and uses another freshman guard (DaPree Bryant) off the bench and employs several other non-seniors has grown a long way since then, winning its second consecutive Ches-Mont Championship nearly two weeks ago.
They do have senior starters in Kamau Brickus and Hassan Young, but they’ll need their freshmen and sophomores to play like upperclassmen to pull off the win.

“I think my freshmen guards have played excellent as far as keeping their poise, understanding the moment, valuing each possession when they get down to crunch time,” Moore said. “I think we’ll be ready to handle that situation when it occurs, not a matter of if, it’s going to occur. So I think we’ve been battle-tested enough to handle those moments.”

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Cheo Houston (above) was hurt last year as P-W won the District 1 AAAA championship. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Game One: No. 2 Plymouth-Whitemarsh vs. No. 3 Abington (6:00 PM)

Last year, as P-W rolled to the District 1 AAAA championship, Cheo Houston sat on the bench.

A knee injury kept the Colonials guard, then a junior, on the sidelines, forced to watch as his teammates beat first Lower Merion and then Chester in the span of four days to capture the crown.

“I was happy for the team, but you want to be out there to help them,” he said. “It’s good watching your teammates win but it just feels like there’s something missing when you’re not playing.”

So all offseason long, Houston was motivated to get back. Despite the fact that P-W graduated Rider freshman Xzavier Malone among a group of five senior starters, he knew that they had what it took to once again be one of the top four teams in the district’s largest classification.

Once he got back and healthy this fall for preseason workouts, that’s all that was on his and his teammates’ minds.

“Watching them on the floor last year at Temple gave me every reason to just work my behind off and rehab, all the reason to get back and better than ever,” Houston said. “I knew before the season that we were going to be back at Temple and I was going to get my chance.”

Now he’s there, after the No. 2 Colonials dispatched No. 18 Central Bucks East and then No. 7 Conestoga in the second round and quarterfinals to reach this point.

And that earned them a matchup with a familiar foe: No. 3 Abington, the game Ghosts squad that dispatched the Colonials just two weeks ago in the Suburban One League championship game.

Charles Grasty’s squad was impressive in that victory as they have been most of the season, led by junior guard Robbie Heath’s 30 points and an 18-point nine-rebound outing from talented 6-7 sophomore Eric Dixon.

Dixon more than held his own against P-W's own impressive sophomore, 7-footer Naheem McLeod, who had eight early points and finished with 17 points and four boards.

“We know that they can handle our pressure well, we’ve got to be more cerebral with it, and we’ve got to learn how to stop them from getting into the lane,” Houston said.

The Colonials' trademark defense lost some of its bite late in the regular season with junior guard Ahmin WIlliams going down with a foot injury. That's put more pressure on his twin brother, Ahmad Williams, plus seniors Houston and Ish Horn, who slid into the starting lineup.

“Ish Horn came up into the starting lineup and he’s given us everything that we expected him to give us,” Houston said. “We miss Ahmin, but we’re going to try to do it for him."


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