Coatesville’s defense powers Red Raiders over Harriton

CALN >> The Coatesville boys basketball team opened District 1 6A play Friday night at Ross Kershey Gymnasium with an impressive display of defensive basketball.

The 11th seeded Red Raiders forced 14 Harriton turnovers and the Coatesville defense spurred a 11-0 run at the beginning of the third period to send the Red Raiders on their way to a 56-38 win. Coatesville (15-8) will now travel to play the sixth seeded North Penn Knights next Tuesday in second round action.

“It always about how we play defense,” Coatesville coach John Allen said. “We had not played in 10 days and I think we were a little rusty in the first half. But the guys turned it up to start the second half and our defense created a lot of easy baskets for us on the offensive end. We will go as far as our defense takes us.”

The two teams played a somewhat even first half. The  Red Raiders took a 17-9 lead after one period then were outscored 11-7 in the second period and led the 22th seeded Rams by just 24-20 at halftime.

Zuri Harris and Dior Kennedy led the way for Coatesville in the first half. Harris had 10 of his game-high 15 points in the first half while Kennedy added 14 points, eight of those in the first half.
But the Rams were not ready for the Coatesville blitz to start the third period.

Harris stripped Aiden Abrams at halfcourt and went in for the layup and a 26-20 Red Raiders lead. The Rams coughed the ball up again the next time down the floor and Kennedy scored off the turnover and suddenly it was a 28-20 Coatesville lead.

Harriton finally got the ball past halfcourt but turned the ball over again. This led to an inside basket by Jake Van Orden and a 30-20 Red Raider advantage. A basket by impressive freshman big man Lawrence Brown ended the 11-0 run and the Red Raiders had a commanding 35-20 lead over the Rams. Brown had eight points and five rebounds on the night.

“Coach always preaches to us about our defense,” Kennedy said. “We talked at halftime about coming out in the third period with energy and we turned them over. Our defense leads to easy baskets and gets everybody on their toes and into the game.”

Coatesville outscored the Rams 19-7 in the third period to take a 43-27 lead after three periods. The Red Raiders shot 9-for-19 in the third period while the Rams were just 2-for-8 from the field in the third quarter.

The fourth period started the same way for Harriton as Amon Fowlkes opened things up for the Red Raiders by stealing the basketball and going in for a layup and a commanding 45-27 Red Raiders lead.

The Rams were basically done after that but to their credit continued to play hard. Coatesville started to hold the ball with a little over five minutes left in the fourth period as the Rams frantically tried for a steal but ended up fouling the Red Raiders.

Jeremiah Marshall, who scored nine points for the game, scored on a pretty driving layup to make it a 47-31 game with a little over three minutes to play and the Red Raiders were well on their way to moving on to the second round while the Rams season came to a close.

“Defense is our number one priority,” Marshall said. “And it gives us some easy looks at the basket. And when we pull the ball out it is nice to have five guys on the floor that can all handle the basketball, like we are all guards. And Zuri and Dior, our two guards, are really good handling the basketball and it is another plus for us to have them out there.”
Coatesville 56, Harriton 38

HARRITON (38) Chadowkowski 1 0-0 2, Abrams 1 0-0 2, Kubish 2 9-13 13, Smith 1 0-0 3, Gaskins 2 0-0 4, Goerlich 5 0-0 14, Sullivan 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 9-16-38.
COATESVILLE (56) Harris 6 0-0 15, A.Fowlkes 1 4-4 6, Kennedy 4 5-6 14, Peoples 0 0-0 0, Brown 4 0-0 8, Marshall 4 0-1 9, Giunta 0 0-0 0, Van Orden 1 0-0 2, Chester 1 0-0 2, W.Fowlkes 0 0-0 0, Hall 0 0-0 0, Lynch 0 0-0 0, Proctor 0 0-0 0, Jackson 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 9-11 56.
Harriton         9 11 7 9-36
Coatesville   17 7 19 13-56
3-point goals: Goerlich 4, Smith, Harris 3, Kennedy, Marshall.