Boys Basketball: Patient Chester Charter ‘figures it out,’ ousts Plumstead Christian for Class A states spot
CHESTER — Kevin Miller believed he was on his way to the dream of every high school basketball player in his city in March of 2020 before he would instead be made to learn the value of patience.
Then a freshman guard for District 1 Class A Chester Charter Scholars Academy, Miller and the rest of the Sabers were made to call a season short amid the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, he figured, there would be other chances, plural. As it turned out, he was thankful Tuesday for one chance at winning a state championship.
Helping to key a swarming Sabers defense, Miller was involved in a balanced scoring attack as top-seeded CCSA subdued No. 4-seed Plumstead Christian, 58-44, in the opening round of the four-team district tournament. That earned the Sabers the right to host the district championship game Saturday and also guaranteed them a berth in the state tournament.
Finally?
“Back then, I was younger,” Miller reminisced. “So it didn’t affect me, but it did affect the teammates around me and my coaching staff. I was still a ninth grader at the time. But now, as a senior, it is a big deal for me. And I want to go as far as possible.”
Behind 11 points from Zach Howard and 10 from Jabryl Bennett, the 18-5 Sabers put themselves in that position despite a strong challenge from the 10-13 Panthers. Jayden Williams chipped in with nine points, and Miller and Samaad Powell added eight apiece.
After battling for a 25-21 lead after the first half, the Sabers won the third quarter, 22-4, for some apparent comfort. But versatile Billy McFadden saved six of his 13 points for the fourth quarter to keep the Panthers competitive. Logan Rufe added 13 for Plumstead, and Ryan Jacobs totaled nine points, all on three-point shots.
“They are a well-coached team,” Chester Charter coach Dan Spangler said. “We like to be fast, and they did a good job of slowing us down. They ran a lot of back-door stuff and had our guys a little frustrated, but we figured it out in the third quarter and turned up the tempo a little bit, and that’s when we had our big stretch.”
Rufe drained a three-pointer just before the first-quarter buzzer to keep Plumstead within 12-10, and McFadden’s bucket with 4:40 left in the second quarter gave the Panthers a 17-16 lead. After Rufe scored for a 21-20 advantage, the Sabers scored the final five points of the half, including a Brian Holley drive with 3.4 seconds left, for the four-point halftime pad.
But Williams and Powell each scored five points in the turning-point third quarter, and Plumstead could not recover.
“Chester Charter is a really good team and we knew we had to play half-court basketball with them to compete,” Plumstead coach John Elton said. “Then they had that third period where they broke away from us.”
With that, the Sabers are on to the district championship game … and, they hope, well beyond.
“The last two years, we went 10-and-12, and my hopes that we’d have another chance at the state tournament kind of went down,” Miller said. “But we stayed in the gym and put the work in. And the results show. Now, I am really excited. This is my last year. We have to go out with a bang.”
Considering that Chester High, the source of community sports interest in March for decades, will be missing from a state tournament for the first time since 1970, that gives the Sabers something of an uncluttered stage.
“The kids deserve it,” Spangler said. “They deserve the attention. They deserve everything they’ve worked for. We just hope the city can back us the way they would back everyone else.”
