GEOGHEGAN: Through growth spurt and growing pains, East advances to district final
NORRISTOWN >> Growth spurts are often accompanied by some growing pains.
During his freshman year at West Chester East, Andrew Carr sprouted up seven full inches. Two years later, he’s further blossomed into a 6-foot-8 star forward for the Vikings.
“I remember really feeling the growing pains in my knees,” Carr reported.
And during the 2018-18 basketball season, much like Carr himself, West Chester East has developed rather quickly, ascending from an also-ran into a district power.
“Adversity is something you have to go through,” said silky smooth swingman Tym Richardson, who along with Carr has been a big-time reason for the program’s ascension. “This has been a great learning experience for everybody.”
Carr and Richardson led the way on Tuesday as the top-seeded Vikings shook off a truly challenging first half and eventually topped Penncrest, 40-32, to advance to Saturday’s District 1 5A Title Game. That means an all Ches-Mont final, with East taking on Sun Valley at 2 p.m. at Temple’s Liacouras Center.
“We’ve been through a lot,” said second-year head coach Tom Durant. “The most important thing is they enjoy playing together and every game they get better and better.”
Make no mistake: this is new territory for just about everybody at East. The Viking last clinched a spot in the PIAA Tournament all the way back in 2002. That was just a year before Durant ended a long coaching stint at Penncrest, and then a 14-year lapse ensued before he took the job in 2017 at East.
“East hasn’t been this far in a very long time. We all feel very proud to be the team to do it,” Richardson said.
“I know (former head coach) Eric Anderson had some really good teams in the 90s,” Durant recalled. “They had (Matt) Schaub and (Dave) Hardy, who went to Colgate.”
There have been a lot of lean years since then. But now, the Vikings are 21-5 overall and just one win away from a district crown. And East will be playing a team it already topped during the regular season. It was, however, a very competitive 64-59 decision back on Jan. 5th.
As for growing pains, look no further than the Vikings’ first postseason contest in a very long time. In a semifinal clash against Unionville in Ches-Mont Tournament on Feb. 9th, the game started with East in a 2-0 hole. The designated home team, the Vikings received a pregame technical foul for wearing its visiting uniforms, so the Indians started the game with a pair of free throws plus the first possession.
It sounded somewhat trivial until Unionville used those two bonus points to push the game into overtime in what eventually became a bitter 62-58 loss for East.
“We just aren’t used to this,” Durant said afterwards. “We didn’t read the fine print. We just assumed since we were the No. 2 seed (from the National Division) that we were the away team.”
Fast forward to Tuesday at Norristown for anther rematch. The Viking clobbered Penncrest 54-28 back on Dec. 28, but things were much different in the district semifinal. In the first half, East shot 22 percent from the floor (0-for-8 from 3-point range) and trailed 15-8 at the half. Let that sink in.
“We had to slow down. We were rushing,” Richardson said.
After regrouping at the half, the Vikings came out and promptly outscored the fourth-seeded Lions 17-3 to take a lead they would not relinquish. Richardson started the comeback with four big third quarter buckets, and then Carr took over in the fourth.
“The kids figured out that we weren’t going to do it on the perimeter,” Durant said. “So we had to figure a way to get it to our big guys. And we had to intensify the (defense) pressure.”
Once the shots started falling, East’s suffocating half-court pressure defense cranked it up a notch, and Penncrest had no answer. At times, Carr played atop the 1-3-1 zone press, and the Lions managed just three third quarter points.
“The kids adjusted well,” Durant said.
“We do it for obvious reasons: it’s hard to see over (Carr) and he is long. And we’ve got some other long kids too.”
Carr wound up scoring 14 of his team-high 18 points in the final period, including 8 of 8 from the free throw line to close it out.
“We went in at the half and drew up a different plan and it definitely worked,” Carr said. “It’s a tribute to our coaches and to the guys. We never give up.”
Richardson finished with 11 points, which means that the two junior standouts combined to score 29 of the Vikings’ 40. He added five rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Carr had a team-high eight boards.
“Tym started to take it to the basketball instead of settling for the outside shot,” Durant said.
The late offensive surge finished it off, but the defense kept East in it. In all, The Vikings forced 14 turnovers, but the majority came in the second half during the comeback.
“To keep an opponent to 15 points in the first half and 18 through three quarters, that’s huge,” Carr said.
The Vikings weren’t quite ready this winter to make a serious run at 6A Coatesville for supremacy in the Ches-Mont league. In two regular season meetings with the Red Raiders, East fell by 13 at home in late December, and by three about month later at Coatesville. But that could all change for the 2019-20 season.
If anybody is going to challenge the Raiders, it’s probably going to be the Vikings. Even though Coatesville’s standout backcourt of Jhamir Brickus and Dapree Bryant will be seniors next year, so too will East’s Carr and Richardson.
But it’s worth noting that East will graduate five of its top seven this spring, which means that Durant will need to audition a whole new cast around his big guns. So there are no guarantees.
“You can never bank on the future – you have to look at the next game,” Durant said. “That’s how we’ve been doing it.”
With the district final and the state tournament to follow, the future is now for West Chester East.
