City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The first two-thirds of the season didn’t go the way Chester wanted.

Sure, the Clippers made their way to 20 wins, a nice standard for any team. But a trio of three-point losses ultimately cost them both a chance at the Del-Val League championship and the District 1 5A title: at Penn Wood (58-55) and at Academy Park (69-66) for its only two league losses; Upper Merion (53-50) in the second round of districts.

That means there’s only one trophy left winnable for this not to be a completely lost year for a program that’s used to bringing home some kind of hardware on a near-regular basis.

“We came up short, we lost some close games that could have gone either way, a couple of bad calls and it happens so we must learn from it and move on,” head coach Larry Yarbray said. “So we didn’t win the Del-Val, we didn’t win the districts and we’ve got a chance to win the state, and our kids understand that.

“Any team that can put five games together can win a state championship,” he continued. “That’s all it takes.”

That’ll continue on Thursday night, when Chester takes on Hershey in the second round of the PIAA Class 5A tournament. The game, originally scheduled for Tuesday night before winter storm Stella rolled through the state, will be played at Pottstown HS with a 5:00 PM tipoff.

Chester (21-6) was led by a trio of seniors in Friday night’s 72-53 win over Milton Hershey.

Holding a Milton Hershey squad that had gone for 70-plus points 17 times on the season under 55 points was the third consecutive strong defensive effort from the Clippers, who held West Chester Rustin and Springfield (Delco.) to 45 points apiece in winning their two district play-back games following the Upper Merion loss.

“It’s a total team effort but it starts with our point guard first, if he can dictate the tempo and force guys where we want them to go, then we can trap them and turn the ball over or disrupt their offense,” Yarbray said. “Guys are starting to understand the concepts better, if you look at our team, we’ve pretty much got eight new players out of 12. So it took a little time.”

Offensively, Chester was paced by senior Ahrod Carter, who led the way with 27 points. Senior forwards Jamar Sudan and Jordan Camper chipped in with 15 and 10, respectively.

That was a career high for Carter, who got to that total on 10-of-12 from the floor. It’s not a number Yarbray is expecting from the senior every time he takes the court, but unlike last year’s team, he’s one of only a few players on the team capable of that type of output.

“The way I look at it, he has the potential to do that any given game,” Yarbray said. “Sometimes he would get down on himself, but we figured out how to get him the ball more easily where he’s open, might help him get in a groove.

“He understands that he’s a senior, there’s no tomorrow, you don’t play hard now and your career will be over for Chester High.”

Jack Wilson paced Hershey (14-13), the final of 10 qualifiers out of District 3, with 14 points and six rebounds in its 51-42 win over District 1 champ Penncrest in the first round.

Wilson’s effort was aided by seven points and seven rebounds from Sean Coller and a six-point, five-assist, two-steal outing from Luke Hedrick.

“They’re disciplined, throw a lot of different defenses at you, try to get you off-balance, but pretty much everything they can throw at us we’ve been through for,” Yarbray said. “(Whether) it’s a zone, box-and-one, if they try to press us, whatever they try to do, we’ve seen before, so our kids will be ready, we’ll be ready.”

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In other 5A second-round action on Thursday:

5A: (12-3) Archbishop Carroll vs. (3-6) Palmyra
5:00 PM, Geigle Complex, Reading HS
Both of these squads fought their way into the second round with balance in the forefront. Carroll was led by double-digit outings from freshman A.J. Hoggard (13 points), senior Colin Daly (11 points), senior Khari Williams (11 points) and junior Justin Anderson (10 points) spearheaded the Patriots in their 61-48 win over Great Valley. For Palmyra, Bryant Wills (19 points), Braden Vernet (15 points), Isaac Blatt (11 points) and Sam Shiels (seven points) paced the Cougars in its 58-43 triumph over Pottsville.

5A: (1-2) Upper Merion vs. (3-1) Northeastern
7:30 PM, Manheim Township HS
The senior forward duo of 6-foot-8 Matt Faw and 6-foot-7 Ethan Miller propelled Upper Merion to a 62-46 win over Greencastle-Antrim. Faw finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks while Miller added in another 20 points and nine boards. Northeastern was led by a smaller duo in its 78-66 triumph of Wissahickon as the 6-foot-2 junior Antonio Rizzuto cashed in for a game-high of 30 and 5-foot-11 freshman Fred Mulbah chipped in an additional 19 points.

5A: (12-2) Martin Luther King vs. (2-1) Abington Heights
8:00 PM, Parkland HS, Allentown
A double-double of 10 points and 14 rebounds from Elijah Kiah-El helped Martin Luther King overcome an ugly start and top Bishop Shanahan by a score of 43-33. Abington Heights used a 7-of-13 (.538) outing from beyond the arc as a team and a combined 48 points from Trey Koehler, Jackson Danzig, and George Tinsley to top Lampeter-Strasburg by a score of 67-48 in its first-round contest.

5A: (12-1) Archbishop Wood vs. (3-2) Mechanicsburg
8:00 PM, Pottstown HS
Per the usual for Wood, Villanova commit Collin Gillespe paced the Vikings with 31 points in their first state win in school history, a 92-62 win over New Oxford. Gillespie and Co. will be countered by Wheaton College pledge Cade Alioth, who turned in an 18-point, 18-rebound double-double in Mechanicsburg’s 49-45 triumph over Springfield (Delco.).