Bishop Shanahan locks down West Chester East for season’s first victory

WEST GOSHEN >> Still looking for its first win of the season after three losses, the Bishop Shanahan boys basketball team put on a virtual clinic Tuesday night at West Chester East High School. The Eagles limited their turnovers, controlled the boards, got balanced scoring and moved the basketball around crisply to find open shots.

Andrew Dolan led the way a game-high 19 points, Jordan Ambrose chipped in with 12 and Dan Browne totaled nine as it added up to a convincing 64-50, Ches-Mont League National Division victory that knocked West Chester East from the unbeaten ranks.

“We were playing on ball defense and we did not do a good enough job,” West Chester East coach Chris Cowles said. “Shanahan deserves a lot of credit. They are a good shooting team and they found open shooters tonight. We have to do a better job of coaching. We will get better.”

The Eagles (1-0, Ches-Mont, 1-3 overall) jumped out on the Vikings (1-1, 3-1), shooting out to a 32-22 halftime lead behind Dolan’s eight first-half points. East actually got close when Kyle Smith buried a long 3-pointer to make it a 27-22 game in the second period. Kevin Dodds came right back with a basket to make it 29-22.

Shanahan used a 22-12 third period to break the game open. East shot just one for 12 from the field in the period, settling for mostly long 3-point attempts.

Doug Costin, who had six points and 10 rebounds, scored from in tight to make it 34-22 early in the the third. Dolan then buried a long three for a 37-23 lead. After an East turnover, one of eight turnovers by them in the period, Dolan scored on a driving layup to make it 39-24.

“We all look out for each other and share the ball,” Dolan said. “In the first half, I was finding guys, and then in the second half, they were finding me and we broke the game open. We have a lot of guys that can shoot the basketball.”

After three periods, Shanahan had a 54-34 lead. With East settling for jump shots that were not falling, Costin, Justin Krasnick and Kevin Dodds controlled the boards and the Vikings were mostly held to just one shot the entire game. Krasnick contributed to the stellar defense with four blocks.

The fourth period saw more of the same as the Eagles ran their offense flawlessly, and when Dan Browne hit on a runner, the lead was up to 61-42. Malij Singletary-Thomas led East with 18 points and along with Kyle Smith, who drained three long 3-pointers, tried to get the Vikings back into the game.

But the night belonged to Shanahan. The Eagles held strong and did not let East really cut into their lead and they walked away with an impressive divisional win.

“We have not done well some times in this gym in the past so we wanted to get out early,” Shanahan coach Ken Doyle said. “We knew Chris would have them come out with a lot of energy and he is doing a great job here. We put some new things in on offense. We have struggled the first three games, but tonight, we did some things really well and Drew (Dolan) had a big game for us. This is a big league win on the road for us.”

BISHOP SHANAHAN (64) Dolan 6 4-4 19, Costin 2 2-3 6, Browne 3 2-2 9, Ambrose 5 1-4 12, Booth 2 6-6 11, Dodds 1 1-3 3, Angelo 0 3-5 3, Ford 0 0- 2 0, Blunt 0 0-0 0, Kozinski 0 0-0 0, Dearing 0 0-0 0, O’Malley 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 19-29 64.

W.C. EAST (50) Singletray-Thomas 4 9-9 18, Egoff 1 2-2 4, Smith 4 2-4 13, Murray 1 4-5 6, Carroll 1 0-0 2, Martin 0 1-2 1, S.Phelan 1 0-0 3, Loper 1 0-0 2, J.Phelan 0 0-0 0, Davis 0 1-2 1, Richardson 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 18-22 50.

Bishop Shanahan 17 15 22 10-64

W.C. East               14 8 12 16-50

3-point goals: Smith 3, Singletray-Thomas, S.Phelan, Ambrose, Brownie, Booth, Dolan 3.