Roman Catholic against Coatesville had all the similarities of the David vs Goliath matchup. Each team’s record may not have shown it, but the sheer size and skill of both teams did.
The Cahillites’ Justice Williams and Jalen Duren both looked like men amongst boys even though both of them are just sophomores. Even without senior guard Lynn Greer III, the team just looked much more seasoned compared to Coatesville even though the Red Raiders had more seniors on the court.
The game happened to play out accordingly to those very same observations. Coatesville, led by the senior trio of Jhamir Brickus, Dapree Bryant, and John Proctor, was ready to put up one hell of a fight though.
The first half was all about John Proctor taking on Roman Catholic almost by himself. He was scoring on backdoor cuts, threes, and tough layups through contact. Everyone in the crowd was going crazy every time Proctor sunk another shot.
Justice Williams wasn’t going to sit idly by and watch this become the Coatesville show. He kept his Cahillites in the lead and made sure the Red Raiders were at least an arms-length away. Drive and kicks to both Nasir Lett and Xzayvier Brown kept Roman rolling right along in the first half.
This was a common theme throughout the entire game actually. Williams was getting into the lane with ease most of the time. When he wasn’t in the lane, he was hitting shots from the outside and still finding open teammates. Taking over the point guard duties from the injured Lynn Greer III was no problem at all. The offense didn’t seem to even skip a beat.
Williams ended up with 24 points while Brown and Lett put up 17 and 16 respectively.
Jhamir Brickus was not about to go out without some fireworks though. Brickus was up to his late-game heroics one more time in his high school career. He started relentlessly attacking the rim no matter who was defending the paint. Getting to the line, put backs on the boards, and deep threes were all coming in bunches.
When it was all said and done, Brickus put up 19 of his 24 points in the second half. He even brought the Red Raiders within four points with just 21 seconds left on the clock. All the while, he wrote his name in the history books as he capped off a stellar high school career by becoming the all-time leading scorer in Coatesville school history.
In the end, the freshman Xzayvier Brown hit some big free throws to push the game out of reach for Coatesville. The Cahillites now move on to face Pennridge in the second round.
