Eagles give Clippers a run before falling in PIAA opener
Colin Payne and the Exeter Eagles quieted the crowd at the Clip Joint a little Tuesday night, at least for a while.
The underdog Eagles held a one-point lead several times in the third quarter and were tied a couple minutes into the fourth quarter before falling to the District 1 champion Chester Clippers 61-52 in a PIAA Class 5A Tournament opener.
“They battled like crazy,” said Exeter coach Matt Ashcroft. “They fought like crazy. I’m proud of ’em.”
The Clippers (19-3) hit 11 free throws in the final quarter to pull away, ending Exeter’s season at 13-15. Chester led 30-26 at the half and 42-41 after three quarters.
Ashcroft said his players were not intimidated by the crowd or the aura playing at the fabled Fred Pickett Jr. Gymnasium and against of of Pennsylvania’s premier programs.
“What I’m so proud of them for (is) the moment wasn’t too big for them,” he said. “It was a business trip. We said, ‘We’re here to win a basketball game.’ You get in there, and you see (the banners representing) eight state championships, it was none of that. They were by no means in awe. They wanted to beat these guys and play Archbishop Ryan Friday night.”
The score was tied 45-45 with six minutes left before the Clippers took advantage of a couple turnovers and went on an 8-0 run. The Eagles got as close as 56-50 on a Zyion Paschall 3-pointer with a little over two minutes left.
Anthony Caccese scored a team-high 16 points for Exeter, 10 in the second half. He also had 15 rebounds and five blocked shots. Payne had 13 first-half points and finished with 15.
Kevin Rucker Jr. scored a game-high 17 for Chester. Breilynd White had 16 and Kyree Womack 15.
The Clippers were good on 20-of-32 free throws; the Eagles went to the line just eight times.
Exeter battled early foul trouble. Alex Kelsey and Reece Garvin each went to the bench with three fouls in first half; they each fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Exeter beat Northeastern 58-53 to finish seventh in the District 3 Tournament. It opened the tournament with a 62-49 win at Milton Hershey before losing at West York and to Lower Dauphin. The Eagles entered the District 3 Tournament as the No. 10 seed after a late-season fade which saw them lose seven of their final eight games.
“We faced a lot of adversity this year and in many respects we surprised some people with some of the wins we had because we just played harder than other teams,” Ashcroft said. “There’s usually one or two games in a season where you didn’t play hard. I truly can not say that about this team. We’ve had some lousy games but we played hard every second of every game.”
They played their final nine games without 6-6 junior Joey Schlaffer, their No. 2 scorer, who was injured Feb. 16 and lost for the season. Still, they pulled off an upset of Wilson in the Berks Conference quarterfinals and reached the state tournament for the first time since 1984.
The Eagles finished 3-14 last season.