Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Depth will be tested during busy week
With the winter weather severely disrupting the basketball schedule for most area teams, this week will see some teams playing three or four games, testing conditioning and depth. So before we embark on a busy week that could alter league races, a few observations from the floor.
Even though they are a Delaware County team playing in the Ches-Mont League, Sun Valley deserves some attention. The Vanguards lost four early season games by a combined 10 points, but now have won three straight and have wins over Avon Grove and West Chester East in the process. The Vanguards feature one of the better players in the league in junior Vinny DeAngelo, who is closing in on the 1,000 point mark, and Sun Valley is suddenly a player in the wide open American Division.
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Coatesville has reeled off five wins in a row and a big reason for the Red Raiders’ streak is that coach Chuck Moore is now running the Coatesville offense through superb sophomore Jhamir Brickus. Any time you can get the ball into the hands of Brickus, good things will likely happen.
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Due to the holidays and recent weather, Bishop Shanahan is one of a handful of teams that has not played a game in a while, and the Eagles visit Downingtown West Tuesday night to take on a struggling Whippet squad. The Eagles only have nine players on the roster and this week will test coach Ken Doyle’s group, which has been playing very well early in the season. The Eagles already have a win over Coatesville and played very well in a season opening loss to the state’s top-ranked team, Plymouth-Whitemarsh.
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In Octorara’s last season in the ChesMont, the Braves are not going silently. Senior guard Dom London is averaging 26 points per game, and when teams come to play the Braves they better have their running shoes on, since Octorara likes to get up and down the floor.
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A key American Division matchup coming this week is West Chester Rustin’s trip to Great Valley on Thursday. The Golden Knights feature big man Jake Nelson and forward Taj Asparagus, but Rustin is not getting enough from its guards to have a winning season so far. For Great Valley, the Patriots are led by sharpshooters Liam Ward and junior marksman Gavin Frankenheimer. Early in the season the Patriots did not shoot well, but they have found their touch and that is bad news for the rest of the division.
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West Chester East is sitting at 4-4 and the Vikings have made progress under first year coach Tom Durant. East won only three games last season and the Vikings have two impressive underclassman in Tym Richardson and sophomore Andrew Carr, who just dropped 25 points on Sun Valley. Carr has a good inside game and can shoot the medium range jumper.
Peter DiGiovanni covers high school basketball for the Daily Local News and Pa. Prep Live. You can follow him on Twitter @PeteDLN.