Chester falls to Ryan, 8563, in state semifinals
Arch. Ryan takes control, books Hershey spot in state semi against Chester
CHESTER » Chester senior Fareed Burton Jr. can admit when he’s been bested on the basketball court.
There’s no shame in giving props to the other guys.
For the Clippers, they faced a harsh reality Monday night. The District 1 champions lost in the PIAA Class 5A quarterfinals, falling hard to District 12 champ Archbishop Ryan, 84-63. The lopsided defeat snapped Chester’s 21-game winning streak at the Clip Joint.
And so ended another season without a state title for one of the most storied boys basketball programs in Pennsylvania. Chester fell a win shy of making their first PIAA final since 2013.
“Tonight, they were the better team. They played better than us. It’s simple as that,” said Burton Jr., who did his job trying to keep the Clippers afloat, producing a team-high 27 points.
“Congratulations to them because they’re a really good team.”
That’s an understatement. The Raiders (115), who will play Cathedral Prep for the title Friday evening in Hershey, manhandled the Clippers. Three players in particular were responsible for the Clippers’ elimination.
Point guard Dominic Vazquez and bigs Aaron Lemon-Warren (6-5 Sr.) and Christian Tomasco (6-9 Sr.) dominated. The
Raiders ran the floor and had their way getting points inside the paint against an undersized Clippers squad. Chester senior forward Karrel Watkins (6-4) did what he could to stop the pain, but he was overmatched.
Lemon-Warren and Tomasco combined for 43 points in the second half. Lemon-Warren finished with 36 on a ridiculous 15-for-18 shooting from the floor. Tomasco, who scored 26 points on 12for-13 shooting, recorded five slam dunks.
“We were expecting No. 33 (Lemon-Warren) to be good, but we weren’t expecting the big guy (Tomasco) to be that good. He was very good,” Burton Jr. said. “They both played exceptionally well and I just wish them good luck in their next game.”
As for Vazquez, he was the engine. The 5-11 senior racked up 12 assists to go with five points, four rebounds and two steals.
“When they were pressing us, there was so many open spots on the floor,” Vazquez said. “Everybody was passing the ball, sharing the ball, and we play great when we do that. Those guys (Lemon-Warren and Tomasco) are both high-level players. They almost had perfect games today, so that was great for us. Aaron had a great game, he was in the right spots every single time.
“Everything seemed to work. Even 3s were falling when I was getting Aaron the ball. Maybe it was because I was touching the ball, I was making them make their shots. But no, seriously, they were just hitting it. All of our guys were today. They all shot great today.”
Ryan converted 73.4 percent of its field goal attempts (36-for-49). Of those tries, only five came from beyond the 3-point arc.
“We played the game in our style,” Vazquez said. “That’s exactly how we want to be able to play every night.”
Meanwhile, Chester struggled mightily to hit its outside shots. The Clippers bricked their first 14 attempts from long range. Kyree Womack sank a 3 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but the Clippers still trailed by 15 points.
By the time the Clippers found some kind of rhythm offensively, the game was well out of reach.
“Tonight, we didn’t have it,” Chester coach Keith Taylor said. “You know, you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game every day, especially around this time of the year. And if you don’t do that, that’s what happens, you get beat like we did tonight. We tried to make a comeback, but we were just trading baskets and all that. We never stopped the ball and they (Ryan) did everything correctly. We finally wore down.
“The 3-point shooting, that’s not our M.O., that’s not our thing. We always start a game 1-for-9 and
stuff like that. But our thing that makes us go is getting to the basket, you know, and that’s what we didn’t do. They closed all of that down early. My guys were on the outside instead of on the inside where we should’ve been.”
Trailing 33-20 at halftime, the Clippers never got within single digits in the second half. The Clippers made a push, causing a turnover or two with their full-court press, but failed to make a serious run. Ryan eventually figured out how to beat the Chester press and convert a slew of easy baskets.
“We were down at halftime and in the second half we couldn’t get our shots to fall until the fourth quarter when we were already down by 15-plus,” Burton Jr. said. “We were trying to come back as much as we could and play until the end. It was too late, but that’s how the game goes sometimes. The shots fall too late and it’s just over by then.”