Henderson rallies to edge Coatesville for fifth straight win
COATESVILLE >> Two teams coming in on four-game winning streaks, played a game Tuesday befitting that pace — close, tense, hard-fought — with even a touch of the surreal thrown in for good measure,
West Chester Henderson rallied in the fourth quarter, outscoring Coatesville, 9-4, in the final frame to pull off a 32-30 Ches-Mont League National Division girls basketball victory Tuesday.
The win was the fifth in a row for the Warriors (6-4 Ches-Mont National, 12-7 overall) and kept them in the running for a Final Four berth. The Red Raiders, who would have clinched a Final Four spot with a victory, fell to 7-4 and 12-7 overall. Coatesville has nonleague game against Norristown and Unionville before finishing a stretch of five straight home games to end the regular season against Avon Grove on Feb. 7. Henderson has division games against Avon Grove and Bishop Shanahan.
The loss also clinches the National Division for Shanahan regardless of the outcome of its game Tuesday against West Chester East.
“They had some people come off the bench and make some big shots,” said Coatesville coach Tina Nicholson. “They rebounded the ball nicely and they wanted it more than us tonight. That’s why they won.”
On the other side, Henderson coach Greta Neff was extremely happy to scratch out the triumph.
“That is a big win for us,” she said. “But, we take it one game at a time, with this group in particular. We have a lot of learning curves and some bumps and bruises along the way, so we’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”
Coatesville took an early 4-0 lead after a pair of baskets by Serenity Burgess. Then, things took a turn into realm of the strange.
Following a miss, Coatesville brought the ball up when Neff had her players go into a zone. The Red Raiders wanted no parts of trying to attack the zone, so Sydney Butcher dribbled and dribbled some more, for nearly two minutes.
She passed the ball to Alexis Fields, got it right back and held the ball, and held it, and held it.
For almost four minutes, Butcher stood stoically near halfcourt with the ball under her arm. The other players stood frozen in what looked like a scene from a bizarre Norman Rockwell painting. Finally, as time wound down in the quarter, the test of wills between the two coaches who were former point guards ended as Coatesville went into its offense. But, they threw the ball away with 11,5 seconds left and the quarter ended 4-0 for the Red Raiders.
“I wanted them to come out,” said Nicholson. “We don’t shoot the ball well, so we needed them to come out a little bit so we could attack. We fell asleep a little on that, too.”
Henderson’s Jackie Shea provided the player’s perspective.
“Yeah, it was,” Shea said when asked if it was surreal. “It was definitely a kind of a funny moment. It will be a funny story for weeks on end.”
Henderson recovered in the second quarter and took a 14-13 lead with 50 seconds left on a driving layup from Whitney Evans, that stood up at the halftime buzzer.
Neither team had more than a three-point lead in the third quarter as the lead changed hands three different times.
Burgess hit two free throws and a basket in the last minute of the quarter as the Red Raiders forged a 26-23 advantage heading into the fourth. But, they scored only four points in the fourth, both on buckets from Burgess.
Henderson took the lead for good on a short jumper from Shea to make it 30-28 with 3:39 left. Neither team scored until Lilli Bertrando hit two free throws with 28.6 seconds remaining.
Coatesville had one last shot, trailing 32-30 with .5 seconds left, however, the inbounds pass was stolen by Gabrielle Nanni as time expired.
Shea and Evans led Henderson with 12 points each, while Bailey Schalleur had six. Burgess paced Coatesville with a game-high 16 points and Deja Morris added 10.
“It was a great team effort,” said Shea. “Everyone was playing hard and I’m blessed to have a great team where everyone talks on defense and everyone is helping.
“Going into the fourth, it was just play as hard as you can. We have nothing to lose, so might as well go out hard. Don’t let them scare you. It’s mental and you have to push through and we did.”
Coatesville’s fourth quarter even had Nicholson perplexed.
“I’m not quite sure myself what happened,” she said. “We didn’t run anything and I think we panicked a little tonight. Give Henderson credit, they didn’t panic and found themselves with open shots.”
WC Henderson 32, Coatesville 30
WC Henderson: Miller 0 0-0 0; Rivera 0 0-0 0; Person 0 0-0 0; Nanni 0 0-0 0; Shea 6 0-1 12; Bertrando 0 2-2 2; Schalleur 2 0-1 6; Evans 4 1-1 12. Totals: 12 3-5 32.
Coatesville: Fields 0 0-0 0; Morris 3 3-4 10; Burgess 7 2-2 16; Butcher 0 0-0 0; Ward 2 0-0 4. Totals: 12 5-6 30.
WC Henderson 0 14 9 9 — 32
Coatesville 4 9 13 4 — 30
3-point goals: Schalleur 2, Evans, Morris.
