Carr, W.C. East roar past Chester
WEST CHESTER — Chester scored the first basket of the game and immediately dropped into a signature full-court press. Tom Durant looked on and didn’t have to call a press break. His West Chester East team knew exactly how to break it and, more importantly, score off of it.
Senior forward Andrew Carr caught the ball at the high post, turned and found point guard Mike Dedda down the sideline and finally Tym Richardson received the ball. The 6-3 senior guard pulled up and drilled a three-pointer in what would become a regular occurrence throughout the game. Carr had a double-double with 28 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks while Richardson scored 14 points despite dealing with foul trouble as West Chest East defeated Chester, 60-47 in the Pete & Jameer Nelson Classic at West Chester University.
Carr, a 6-foot-9 Delaware commit, scored his first basket of the game during a 9-0 Vikings run, which followed the Clippers’ initial bucket. A few possessions later, Carr finished strong in the lane, then on the ensuing possession Richardson was fouled behind the arc. He hit all three free throws and the Vikings (7-1) were in command, up 14-4 with 2:29 left in the opening quarter. Carr closed out the first-quarter scoring for East with a baseline slam.
It was only a week ago that Carr had scored a career-high 40 points in a win over Academy of the New Church and he continued his torrid start to the year. Head coach Tom Durant attributes Carr’s success, especially in the press break, to his experience having been a guard for much of his playing career.
“The beauty of it is that he was a guard all of his life until his sophomore year,” Durant said. “He grew from his freshman to sophomore year from 6-foot to 6-9. He still had the handle and he incorporated it into his game. He’s an unselfish player.”
Carr was matched down low by Clippers forward Karell Watkins, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds. The 6-4 Watkins singlehandedly closed the gap in the second quarter by scoring 10 points, including a tough putback to cut the deficit to 21-18 2:56 before halftime. Two free throws later in the quarter had the Vikings’ lead down to two, but Carr answered with a triple from the wing. Chester (4-2) trailed by three at the break but that was as close as the Clippers would get.
Head coach Keith Taylor, whose team shot 1-for-18 from three-point range, pointed to a slow start, a continual hindrance to start the season, as the focal reason his side could not make the last push to ultimately take a lead.
“We can’t come out, get down 14 points every night and think we’re going to come back,” Taylor said. “I try and tell the guys they can’t turn it on and off whenever they feel like it. They think they’re going to come out and win because they have Chester on their jersey. It doesn’t work like that.”
Richardson and Carr combined to score the first 11 points of the second half, thereby pushing the Vikings’ lead to 42-30, while Watkins was held scoreless in the third.
Carr noted how the Vikings’ zone defense set the tempo for the game but credited Watkins for his success on the glass.
“We really wanted them to shoot threes and I thought we did a really good job of that with contesting shots,” Carr said. “(Watkins) did a good job down low by finding gaps off of drives but we forced them into shots we wanted them to take.”
Akeem Taylor (12 points) had two baskets and Fareed Burton Jr. had the Clippers’ lone three-pointer during a 9-2 run that cut the lead to 46-41 with 4:07 remaining. A three-pointer by Jack Kushner and then a pair of free throws from Carr and backup point guard Destined McCray (six points) put the game away for West Chester East.
