Coatesville tops Lower Merion, earns second trip to district final in three years
PHILADELPHIA >> Despite a slow start, some serious late foul trouble and a rough shooting night for star guard Jhamir Brickus, the Coatesville boys’ basketball squad earned its way into the District 1 6A Championship Game with a 71-66 blue collar victory over Lower Merion in the semifinals on Tuesday at Temple.
“We took a good punch early and survived,” said Red Raiders’ head coach Fred Thompson. “We were able to regain our composure and fought back like we’ve been doing all season.”
Now 26-1 overall, second-seeded Coatesville will play top-seeded Abington in the final on Saturday, once again at the Liacouras Center. It is a rematch of the 2017 district title game where the Ghosts prevailed by six.
“It feels good to be back in the final and playing Abington,” said junior forward John Proctor, who scored nine of his 15 points in the first half.
“This (win) helps with our confidence, but we are a confident team,” Thompson added. “It doesn’t matter who it is against, we have to be ready to play.”
The Aces fall to 23-3 and will host Pennridge in the consolation final on Friday.
“We were ready to go, but a good team is going to punch back and Coatesville made a run,” said Lower Merion head coach Gregg Downer.
“We went a little cold in the second half, missed some foul shots and could not get over the hump.”
A three-point ball game with four minutes to go in regulation, the Raiders made a final push and the resulting 9-3 mini-run was enough to close it out. It started with a 3-pointer and a driving bucket by Brickus, and ended with a put-back and a couple free throws from senior forward Tione Holmes.
Speedy junior guard Dapree Bryant scored eight of his 18 points in the fourth quarter for Coatesville, and Brickus went 4-4 from the free throw line in the final 51.3 seconds.
“(My teammates) saw it wasn’t my best game, so they picked me up,” Brickus said. “I just had to play defense and I tried to create space for everybody else so they can get their shots off.”
Senior guard Jack Forrest poured in 16 of his 22 points in the first half for the Aces, but nobody else managed to get into double figures.
“Our guys are resilient,” Thompson said. “They are a bunch of hard-nosed kids that play tough basketball. They understand when (Brickus) isn’t hitting shots that they have to step up and fulfill our needs on offense.
“Trust me, (Saturday) Brickus will be better. Hopefully we’ll all be better.”
Lower Merion hounded Brickus all evening with a variety of gimmick defenses, but he still managed to score 22.
“We threw a lot at (Brickus) – some box-and-one, some triangle-and-two, and I thought we had him as in check as you can, and then he started get the foul line and you can’t compete with that,” Downer said.
Brickus added: “I’m used to it. A lot of team go box-and-one on me.”
The Aces were red-hot from the opening tipoff, and Forrest was the catalyst. He scored nine points in the first three minutes as Lower Merion raced out to a 16-4 lead. After missing eight of their first nine shots, Coatesville then called a timeout, however, and promptly reeled off a 21-7 rally to grab its first lead midway through the second quarter.
“It’s nothing we haven’t seen, or been through, all season,” Thompson said.
“It seems like I am always repeating myself with these guys. Now, the guys are starting to repeat it. We got a little loud on the bench because we were upset we weren’t guarding, but we settled down.”
Proctor scored seven points and the Raiders forced seven Aces turnovers during the run. Lower Merion regrouped at the free throw line, knocking down 9 of 12 the rest of the way to take a 32-30 lead into the intermission.
“We start a lot of games off like that, but we never give up. We never doubt ourselves. As long as we play defense, we’re cool,” Brickus said.
“(Proctor) gave us a huge lift,” Thompson pointed out. “We’ve kind of been waiting on him all season and he’s been kind of hot and cold. (Tuesday) he played real well.”
Coatesville outscored the Aces 16-9 in the third quarter, but the Raiders headed into the final period with three starters in foul trouble along with two others off the bench. And Lower Merion only trailed by five.
And even though Aaron Young and Dymere Miller fouled out, Coatesville’s standouts managed to stay on the floor.
“We just had to keep thinking positive,” Proctor said.
“Jhamir can’t have a good game every night, so we all have to keep trying to contribute and play together.”
Coatesville 71, Lower Merion 64
LOWER MERION – Payne 3 5-8 9; Hairston 2 3-4 8; Forrest 7 5-8 22; Taylor 3 1-3 7; O’Connor 2 0-0 6; Henry 2 2-3 6; Shippen 1 0-0 2; Martin 1 1-3 3. Totals 21 17-29 66.
COATESVILLE – Bryant 5 8-12 18; Brickus 7 6-9 22; Young 1 0-0 2; Miller 2 0-2 5; Proctor 6 2-4 15; Holmes 1 4-6 6. Totals 22 20-33 71.
Lower Merion 19 13 9 25 — 66
Coatesville 13 17 16 22 — 71
Three-pointers: Payne, Hairston, Forrest 3, O’Connor 2, Brickus 2, Miller, Proctor.
