Backs to the wall, W.C. East tops CR North to keep season alive
WEST GOSHEN >> It rarely happens, according to West Chester East head boys’ basketball coach Tom Durant.
On Friday, hours before the Vikings’ season went on the line in District 1 6A Playback action, Durant’s point guard Jose Ramos sent him a text. It said: ‘Believe in me tonight.’ Durant responded: ‘I like it. Let’s go.’
And that later evening, Ramos backed up the faith his coach has in him by pouring in a season-high 19 points and engineering a come-from-behind, 56-51 triumph over visiting Council Rock North at jam packed Byrne Gymnasium.
“Kids don’t normally do that on the day of a game,” Durant said afterwards. “But he did and that was awesome.”
Faced with the prospect of either winning and moving on, or losing and ending the season, Ramos and his teammates forcefully chose the first option. And No. 7 East did it by outscoring the 15th seeded Indians 21-8 over the final eight minutes plus of action.
“This was do or die. I was not going to let my team go out like that,” said Ramos, a junior.
“This group is resilient and they never give up,” Durant added.
Now 19-7 overall, the Vikings have punched their ticket to the PIAA Tournament, and now the only thing left to do is to determine the seeding. East will travel to Ches-Mont National rival Downingtown West (the sixth seed) for a Tuesday clash in the semifinals of the playback bracket.
“We are young and hopefully our kids realized that the fourth quarter was either the last eight minutes of the season, or we play on,” Durant said. “To be able to move on is huge. They are reaping the rewards of hard work.”
In the final minute of the third quarter, the Vikings trailed by eight, and looked to be in some serious trouble. But it was pretty noticeable when the defensive intensity started to ramp up, and that spurred the strong finish.
“At the half, we talked about turning it up – we had no choice if we didn’t want to go home for the season,” Ramos said.
Sophomore Josh Sherlock ended the third with a key 3-pointer, and then the momentum just kept building. A jump shot by freshman K.J. Cochran, and a steal by Cochran led to a driving bucket for Sherlock to knot the score at 45-45 with 3:52 on the clock.
Sophomore Ryan Price gave East the lead for good with a 3-pointer, and then a drive and bucket by junior Jack Kushner upped the margin to three. Kushner scored inside again in the final minute, and Ramos knocked down two free throws to make it 54-48 with 10.1 seconds remaining.
“We haven’t lost any back-to-back games this season so we had to bring up the energy,” Ramos said. “I had confidence my team would turn it up and we did.”
Ramos kept the Vikings afloat early in the second half when he scored the team’s first eight points. He wound up scoring 14 points in the second half alone. Kushner added 13 points and Cochran chipped in 10.
East actually knocked down five of its first six shots, with Cochran burying a pair of 3-pointers, but CR North ended the opening period with 10 straight.
In the middle of the second, East forced four turnovers which led to an 11-2 spurt. But once again the Indians finished with a 12-3 flourish that ended with a bank shot buzzer-beater from near half court from Jack Blum, putting North ahead 30-25 at the break.
“At the half we changed it up defensively,” Durant explained. “We thought we could play a straight man-to-man on (North), but they beat us on back door cuts, and they got some easy looks for 3-pointers. So we knew we had to rev it up with some trapping zones, and pressuring their point guard (Bernie Parent) because everything goes through him.”
Adam Mahtat led the Indians with 17 points, Blum had 14 and Parent 13. North only turned it over 12 times, but they came at key points for the Vikings.
“I am still mad that we can’t win the district title, but we are in states now, and we’ll be ready,” Ramos said.
West Chester East 56, Council Rock North 51
Council Rock North 14 16 13 8 — 51
W.C. East 11 14 13 18 — 56
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH – Blum 6 0-0 14; Burkett 2 0-0 5; Mahtat 7 2-3 17; Parent 3 5-8 13; Saifer 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 7-11 51.
W.C. EAST – Sherlock 2 0-0 5; Puchalla 0 1-3 1; Ramos 6 2-2 19; Kushner 6 1-2 13; Cochran 4 0-1 10; Gallagher 1 0-0 2; Price 2 0-0 6. Totals 22 4-8 56.
Three pointers: Blum 2, Burkett, Mahtat, Parent 2, Sherlock, Ramos 3, Cochran 2, Price 2.
