Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Second Gear
Coatesville explodes in second quarter, rolls over D-East
CALN » Throughout the course of the regular season, the Coatesville boys basketball team had periods where it did not look like the juggernaut it truly is.
The Red Raiders, at times, let teams hang around until they unleashed a furious second half comeback to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Tuesday night, in the second round of the District 1 Class 6A playoffs against rival Downingtown East, the Red Raiders left no doubt of their superiority.
Leading by four points after an uneventful first quarter, Coatesville went on to blast the Cougars, 70-56, pulling away with a 19-0 run to start the second quarter.
Coatesville locked up a state tournament berth with the win, and will now host a good Methacton team Friday night in the quarterfinals.
The Cougars head into the losers bracket against Central Bucks South, and will have to win three straight games to reach the PIAA tournament.
“We are just letting teams know this is the playoffs and we are not playing around,” Coatesville senior Dymere Miller said. “We picked it up right from the beginning and got out to a big lead. It got hard to play with that kind of lead because sometimes you start messing around. But, tonight we wanted to get our bench players in because they work so hard in practice.”
Miller finished the game with 11 points, including three long 3-pointers, two of which he sank during the decisive Red Raider (241) run. Downingtown East (14-10) turned the ball over 23 times for the game, 16 in the first half and five during the Coatesville run. Coatesville outscored Downingtown East 25-7 in the second quarter and took a commanding 36-14 lead into intermission.
Dapree Bryant led all scorers with 26 points and backcourt mate Jhamir Brickus finished with 24, as the guard tandem drove Cougar ball handlers nuts all night with their defense.
After Miller drilled his second three of the run, Bryant stole a pass and drove the basket for a 24-7 Coatesville lead. Another Downingtown East turnover turned into another Miller three for a 27-7 Coatesvile lead. Brickus then unleashed a three of his own and the Red Raiders were cruising from there at 30-7.
Andrew King, who led the Cougars with 20 points, ended the onslaught with a driving layup, but the outcome was pretty much decided right there.
“The first two times we played them I thought we avoided the avalanche,” Downingtown East coach John Goodman said. “But tonight it landed on top of us. Give credit to them. They speed you up and make you play faster than you want to and that is a credit to them. But, our kids played hard for 32 minutes and that is all you can ask.”
With the outcome decided at halftime, the second half was pretty much a series of fast breaks, as the Red Raiders excited the crowd with a pretty alley oop from Bryant to Brickus to keep everyone entertained. The Cougars actually outscored the Red Raiders 42-34, in the second half, but the game was decided long before halftime.
“We know that it is the playoffs now and we can’t come out slow,” Bryant said. “We got on them right away and Dymere hitting those shots was big because they were collapsing on me and Jhamir so we just pushed it out to the corners and he hit some big shots.
Coatesville ended up shooting 27 for 54 from the field while turning the ball over just four times, a performance that pleased first year Coatesville coach Fred Thompson.
“We are a good team that is playing very well right now,” Thompson said. “We still need to work on some little things if we want to go to the district final. But, tonight they played very well and I am pleased with the outcome.”