Carr ignites comeback as West Chester East takes care of Bishop Shanahan

WEST GOSHEN >> When you play West Chester East, you better be ready to spend the full 32 minutes trying to shut down the many weapons the Vikings have at their disposal. 

East is currently the No. 1 seed in the District 1 Class 5A playoff race, and Tuesday night at a very loud Jack Byrne Gymnasium, the Vikings stormed back in the fourth quarter to overtake Bishop Shanahan, 54-44, in Ches-Mont National Division action.

West Chester East (4-1 Ches-Mont, 9-1 overall) outscored the Eagles (1-4, 3-7), 22-8, in the decisive fourth quarter. The Vikings’ big 6-foot-8 forward Andrew Carr, who had six points after three quarters, exploded for 10 fourth-quarter points after Bishop Shanahan had done a great job denying Carr the ball for three quarters.

“We talked about things at halftime and made some adjustments to attack their 3-2 zone defense,” Carr said. “I started to get the ball inside and then the three-pointer I hit really opened up things. We came back Saturday against Sun Valley and tonight we came back so we feel we are a contender in the Ches-Mont and in the district.”

West Chester East trailed 19-11 after one quarter but came back in the second thanks to Tym Richardson, who had a stretch of seven straight points to bring the Vikings within six at 28-22 at halftime. Richardson led the Vikings with 20 points on the night, including four three-balls. Gibby Trowery also had a big night as he sank four three-pointers of his own for 12 points.

“We talked about things at halftime and decided to slow the game down a little,” Trowery said. “We just needed to relax and then our game came to us. We don’t take any teams lightly. We respect every opponent but who we got behind we did not panic. We knew we can come back and we let our game flow and we needed to cut down on the turnovers.”

The Eagles’ lead was down to 36-32 after three quarters, as West Chester East started to get the ball down low to Carr. Bishop Shanahan was kept in the game by the superlative shooting of Phil Chenard, who led all scorers with 25 points, including seven 3-pointers. Every time it looked like West Chester East would tie or take the lead, Chenard hit another three.

But, the Vikings got it done in the fourth when Trowery drained a long three from the left corner to make it a 42-39 East lead. After a Shanahan miss, Carr tried to score inside, got fouled and hit one of two free throws for a 43-39 lead. The Vikings, after turning the ball over eight times in the first half, had just one turnover in the second half.

Bishop Shanahan was not done, however. Joe O’Malley scored in the lane to make it a 43-41 game with 3:20 left and the Eagles had life. But, Shanahan went ice cold from there, shooting just three of 14 from the field in the fourth quarter after going 13 for 33 from the field the first three quarters.

“I knew we had to have some scoring in the first half because they were collapsing on Andrew,” Richardson said. “We let our game come to us in the second half.” 

Chenard cam edown the floor and drained a very long three-pointer to make it a 45-44 East lead with 2:21 left in the game. But, the Vikings would score the next nine points, while the Eagles went scoreless, and that was the game.

Shanahan missed four shots in that time span and Carr drained a long three to make it a 50-44 game. Carr added two free throws after that to make it 52-44. Carr finished the game with 16 points to go along with nine rebounds, and Eest Chester East, which came back to defeat Sun Valley on Saturday, did the trick again Tuesday night against a good Shanahan club.

“That is two games in a row where these kids came back and gave great effort,” West Chester East coach Tom Durant said. “At halftime we made some moves to open the floor up and get the ball to Andrew and that was a key to the game.”

Notes >> The two teams combined for 19 3-pointers on the night with the Eagles’ Chenard sinking seven.

West Chester East 54, Bishop Shanahan 44

Bishop Shanahan 19 9 8 8 – 44
West Chester East 11 11 10 22 – 54

BISHOP SHANAHAN (54): Chenard 8 2-2 25, O’Malley 3 0-0 7, Smyth 3 0-2 7, Ibarguen 2 0-0 5, Bertolami 0 0-0 0, Kresefski 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 2-4 44.

WC EAST (54): Carr 6 3-5 16, Richardson 7 2-2 20, Trowery 4 0-0 12, Delaney 1 2-2 4, Kushner 1 0-2 2, Anderson 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 7-11 54.

3-point goals: Chenard 7, O’Malley, Smyth, Ibarguen,Trowery 4, Richardson 4, Carr.