Lack of calls in the paint hurt Red Raiders, losing streak hits four
By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times
Coatesville’s Nafisa Saunders pulls up late in the game, Thursday, as the Red Raiders fell 30-25. Though they mounted an admirable comeback, the Red Raiders fell short in the final two minutes.
CALN – No matter how hard a team plays, they will never control everything that happens in a game. Sometimes, luck and refereeing play a large enough role to decide an outcome.
In Thursday night’s 30-25 home loss to West Chester East, questionable officiating appears to have prevented Coatesville Area High School’s girls basketball team from completing its comeback for a win.
Both teams played deliberate and calculated for most of the night. The offenses worked the perimeter looking for openings in the opposition. Very rarely did they drive the ball or push it down the court looking for points on the break.
Nafisa Saunders drives past the defense in the first quarter of Thursday’s game. Coatesville’s offense did well to pick its spots and score early but slowed down in the middle of the game.
While Coatesville looked more effective at getting open shots early on, its could not capitalize on many of the opportunities, putting the teams tied at nine at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter looked much the same, but East began using their perimeter passing to stretch the Red Raiders’ defense and get favorable matchups in the low post. Doing so gave them a wide range of shots to allow them to take a 17-12 lead into the half.
Coatesville’s Autumn Smith looks for a pass up top. When the defense would not open up, Coatesville reset the ball and continued to look for openings.
The trends of the first half continued in the second with an added dimension: more physicality. While the teams did get scrappy a few times in the first half, the paint turned into a warzone in the second. Players shoved, set legal and seemingly illegal screens, and used any physical advantage they could. Fouls seemed to be called at random, with referees ignoring blatant and unnecessary shoves away from the play and then calling the slightest contact between two players only a few seconds later.
During this time, Coatesville seemed to lose its nerve on offense. Often, the the Red Raiders passed the ball around well to get an open shot, but instead of taking it, the player would dribble for a few steps and take a much more difficult shot in traffic. With East holding a 24-16 lead going into the final period, the away side looked in control, and the game looked like the teams would hack each other into a comfortable Vikings victory.
But in the fourth quarter, perhaps because of the physical play in the low post, Coatesville started playing with emotion. Junior Irelynn Donovan scored on one of the games few drives to start the quarter. When the ball came to the other half, they guarded their opponents more closely, which resulted in a blocked shot. Sophomore Nafisa Saunders grabbed the ball, drove the length of the court, and finished with a layup to announce that the Red Raiders would not be content with letting East cruise to victory.
Coatesville continued its intensity on defense, pressing dribblers and getting in the way of passes. From the beginning of the quarter, East went six minutes without scoring. Midway through the quarter, Coatesville was able to tie the game up. After they blocked another shot, senior Autumn Smith came up with the ball, took it the whole way, finished with a layup and drew the foul. She missed her foul shot, but sophomore Molly Clifford grabbed the board and put it up for two more to make it 24-24 with 3:39 left.
Coatesville seemed to have all the momentum to take the lead. Donovan made another drive, and as she raised her hands to shoot the layup, drew contact, but converted anyway for what seemed like an opportunity for a three point play. But the referee saw differently, instead judging that the foul did not occur while shooting. After the resultant inbound, Coatesville failed to score, and West Chester earned a three point play of their own to take the lead back at 27-24 with two minutes left.
With less than a minute left, Saunders, Coatesville’s best player on the night, drove into the lane, pulled up in a crowd, sank her shot and drew a foul for the opportunity to tie. Once again, the referee deemed that it was not a shooting foul, though the contact came in midair this time. Saunders went to the line for her bonus shots and hit one but then was not allowed to take the second, as the referee deemed that one her teammates crossed the three point line while she lined up.
Coach Fred Ellzy let his frustration be known, resulting in a technical foul. East made two of its four foul shots to make it 29-25 with 32 seconds left and East getting the ball back. Coatesville got another shot after that and fouled to try to preserve the slim hope of a comeback, but the technical essentially sealed the game for the Vikings.
The Red Raiders will look to end their four game losing streak on Saturday. Penn Wood comes into town for a game to be held at 4:30.
Coatesville scorers:
Autumn Smith – 9
Nafisa Saunders – 8
Irelynn Donovan – 5
Molly Clifford – 2
Zada Bookman – 1
