Driving past East Stroudsburg's Ryan Krawczeniuk, CHC junior and Penn Charter grad Demetrius Isaac ascends toward the hoop. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Well into the second half of Chestnut Hill College's Turkey Day getaway game last Wednesday afternoon, what was supposed to be a challenging outing against the men of East Stroudsburg University looked like a pleasure cruise.

The host Griffins pushed an early lead into double figures in the first seven minutes, and by halftime they had the visitors doubled up at 44-22. More than nine minutes into the second round CHC was still up by 20 points (63-43), but then the Warriors began to battle back.

Powerful senior forward Rasheed Moore, who reached the 1000-point mark in scoring last season and was the Warriors' MVP, funneled in 24 of his game-high 28 points in the second half to lead a fierce ESU rally. His final points of the afternoon came on a lay-up that tied the game with 26 ticks to go, but with two seconds left CHC sophomore guard Liban Awl aced a pair of free throws, locking in his team-high (and career high) total of 22 points as he nudged the Griffins to a 79-77 victory.

"A win is a win," CHC head coach Jesse Balcer said afterwards. "I was actually expecting that kind of a score; I wasn't expecting to be up by 24 in the middle of the game. I thought it would be a really tough match-up, especially when we were missing our only senior starter."

CHC levelled its record at 2-2 with the non-conference victory. The Griffins started out with a pair of setbacks, then in their home opener on November 16 they won 72-62 in their first Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference contest.

Over the following weekend Chestnut Hill suffered a personnel setback when starting senior-graduate guard J.J. Butler had to undergo an emergency appendectomy.

"I tell our guys that they all need to be ready to play and contribute," related Balcer, who is now in his 14th season at Chestnut Hill. "Back in September and in the pre-season, we try and emphasize conditioning and mental toughness. That's the kind of team we have; we just kind of gut it out."

Demetrius Isaac, a junior guard out of Penn Charter, popped in a jumper to put up the first points in last Wednesday's game. The Warriors tied it up, then another third-year Griffins guard, Ed McWade, tossed in a three-pointer. When junior big man Chris Evans hit a three of his own and then deposited a lay-up in the paint, CHC was up 10-2 a little over four minutes in.

The Griffins continued to blend inside/outside shooting successfully, while the visitors just struggled to score from anywhere, moving toward a halftime shooting percentage of 24.0 from the floor. Moore, usually East Stroudsburg's offensive engine, produced four points in the first 20 minutes.

CHC received 10 points in the period from McWade and overall high of 13 from Awl. Awl had performed erratically at the outset of the season. Coach Balcer noted that the sophomore did not play at all in the third game (the Georgian Court win), but then came to practice eager to return to the floor in competition.

With a variety of scorers producing for CHC early in the second stanza, East Stroudsburg was not able to make much of a dent in the Griffinss' lead after most of the first half of the period had slipped away. With more than nine minutes elapsed, the hosts were still ahead by 20 points at 63-43, but then things began to change quickly.

In a one-minute span, Moore gave the Warriors a pair of lay-ups while making all of the four free throws awarded him. His fist pumps and vocalizations fired up his teammates, as well as himself.

The 6'5", 235 lb. forward was the key to East Stroudsburg's turnaround, according to CHC's Balcer.

"That kid Rasheed Moore dominated us," stated the Griffins' skipper. "He's a great player, one of the better players in the PSAC [Pa. State Athletic Conference]. We locked in on him but couldn't do anything with him."

With nine minutes left ESU was back within 10 points of the leaders, at 63-53.

Isaac, who'd been the last Griffin to score, ended a drought of almost three minutes with a midrange jumper from the right wing, and then scoreboard pretty much see-saweed for awhile until the Warriors made their final push.

With five-and-a-half minutes to go, Chestnut Hill led 71-60, but when a time-out was called with 2:11 left the visitors were just three points back, 75-72. Over the next minute, CHC sophomore forward Dakpe Yiljep was fouled while going back up to shoot after a rebound and made both of his free throws, while the Warriors hit one four foul shots. The second of the two calls against CHC during this stretch sent Isaac to the bench with his fifth foul, and with 1:02 to go it was a 77-73 game.

After a lay-up by ESU forward Steve Harris, a turnover by the Griffins gave the ball back to their guests. A Warrior shot was deflected in the lane, but the ball ended up in the hands of Moore just to the left of the backboard, and he scored with 26.2 seconds remaining to tie the contest at 77-all. He missed the free throw he earned on the play, and CHC freshman Nasir Bell pulled in the rebound.

Bell, a graduate of Martin Luther King High School, was called to duty early in the game as CHC mentor Balcer looked for ways to adjust his personnel to cope with the loss of Butler.

"Nasir Bell stepped in as a freshman and did a really good job taking care of the ball and defending and rebounding," the coach said. "He's athletic, and he's used to a fast pace from playing in the Philadelphia Public League, so we figured why not give him a chance."

Dakpe Yiljep (left), a CHC sophomore out of Westtown School, goes up to block a shot by Rasheed Moore of East Stroudsburg. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Chestnut Hill came back down the floor and ran the clock down, and with under five seconds left Awl drove down the right side of the lane. Back with 1:13 left, a driving East Stroudsburg guard had benefitted from a call for a blocking foul against CHC on a sequence where the Griffins felt the Warrior player might well have been penalized for a charge.

Now, as similar ambiguous contact occurred on the penetration by Awl, the whistle went the Griffins' way.

At the foul line with 2.1 ticks on the clock, Awl made his first free throw, and on his second toss the ball hit the front and back of the rim, then dropped in. East Stroudsburg got the ball back over halfcourt, but a shot from about 25 feet out missed the target and CHC had the victory.

In addition to his team-high point production, Awl ended up with three assists and three steals, while Evans came away with 15 points. Also in double digits in the scoring column were McWade (seven rebounds), with 12 points, and Yiljep (eight rebounds), with 10. Eight points apiece were credited to Isaac (six assists) and sophomore Tony Toplyn, Jr.

It appeared to their coach that throughout the game the Warriors demonstrated an unusual approach to playing defense.

"It looks like they foul on almost every play, but the refs just can't call that many fouls," Balcer said. "You just have to get used to it. Like I said, a win is a win, and we made one more play than they did."