Sunday, December 10, 2023

Clippers Sail Past the Green Knights

By Terry Thomas

Chester (2-1) used a 20-9 fourth quarter for a 52-38 victory over the host Mount Pleasant (DE) Green Knights (1-2).  With the win the Clippers and Coach Taylor are riding a 10-game win streak over our southern neighbors. Coach Taylor now holds a 12-2 record over the state of Delaware.

Chester jumped out for a 6-2 lead with 3:05 to play. Mt. Pleasant responded taking a 7-6 lead with just under a minute to play in the first quarter. The Clippers answered with a 6-0 run to close the quarter. Chester's Dante Atkinson scored on a free throw, a layup off a steal from Calvin Williams and drained a trey as the horn sounded. Dante finished the quarter with 8 of his shared game high of 12 points. Dominic Toy who also scored 12 points, dropped 4 points in the opening quarter. Chester led 12-7 at the end of the quarter.

Chester maintained their defensive pressure and used a patient offense which enabled them to stretch their lead to 12 points in the second quarter. Like the Clippers, the Green Knights hit a trey as the second quarter horn sounded to close the gap to 9 points going into intermission. Chester led 23-14. Calvin Williams scored 4 of his 6 points which included a trey. Jaseir Thompson also added a trey. Dallas Thompson (no relation to Dallas) and Vincent Coleman each contributed a bucket to finalize the Clippers scoring in the second quarter.

The Clippers began the third quarter with a bucket by Toy increasing their lead to eleven points, 25-14. Chester then appeared to play give away turning the ball over to the Green Knights which enabled them to draw close, 28-23, with just over four minutes left in the quarter. An Atkinson bucket with 4:00 on the clock pushed the score to 30-23. The Green Knights ran off 5 straight points before Daron Harris scored for the Clippers making the score 32-28 with 30 seconds left in the quarter. The Green Knights once again hit a late trey. The quarter ended with Chester slightly ahead 32-31. After holding Mt Pleasant to single digit scoring in the first two quarters, 7 points in each, Chester gave up 17 points in the third quarter.

The Clippers regained their wind in the final quarter sprinting to a 17-2 run and holding a 48-33 lead with 2:40 left on the clock. During that 5 minute and 20 second span the Clippers committed just one turnover and connected on 6 of 6 free throws. Calvin Williams added a bucket and Toy knocked down two more free throws to close out the scoring. Once again, Chester held Mount Pleasant to a mire 7 points in the final eight minutes. Jaseir Thompson went 4/4 from the line to finish with 7 points in the contest. The Harris twins combined for 6 points in the period, Daron - 4 and Jalen - 2.

The team finished with 10 assists on 19 made baskets. Dante Atkinson led the way with 4 assists to go along with 3 blocked shots and 4 rebounds. Dallas Thompson, Dominic Toy and Calvin Williams helped clean the glass with 6 rebounds apiece.

The Clippers will return to action next Friday, December 15, when they travel to take on the West Philadelphia Speedboys for a 4:00 pm JV tip-off. The Varsity will follow.

JV GAME SUMMARY

Chester's JV (2-1) returned to the winning column with a 36-27 victory over Mount Pleasant. The Clippers used a 13-6 fourth quarter to pull away for the win. Ryan Reed led with a game high 15 points including 8 in the pivotal fourth. Kameron Wilson drained two big treys to finish with 8 points. The other Chester scorers were Tae'Qwann Naylor (3), Christian Spann (4), Ra'Shaad Dorsey (2) and Hamza Payne (4). Jaylon Bantum and Dominique Gilyard contributed in the contest with defensive presence.

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