Cherry Hill East Boys Basketball Hot as Playoffs Near

With 0.6 seconds left in the first half, the Cherry School East boys basketball team was awarded the ball out of bounds under their own basket. Conventional wisdom suggested the next play would be a short pass to run out the clock.

However, with the type of half the Cougars were having, it was only fitting they had one more bit of magic to offer.

A court-long inbound pass found its way into the hands of Andrew Brown, who dropped in a leaning layup as the buzzer went off, capping a thrilling first half that saw the Cougars run up 41 points on Washington Township. Hank Davis had the hot hand early, scoring 14 of his 19 points in the first quarter, leading East to a 59-41 Olympic Conference win.

The Cougars shot lights out in the opening session, jumping out to a 22-5 lead in the first eight minutes. The performance was a contrast to the one the last time the two teams met, when East fell behind by seven after the first quarter and had to rally back for a victory.

“I knew we had a tough game against them last time we were away and they came out tough,” said Davis. “I knew we had to reciprocate and come out fast one our home court, and that’s what we did.”

Davis had the hot hand from beyond the arc, draining four 3-pointers in the first quarter.

“I tried not getting my head too big,” said Davis. “I just tried to keep pushing and pushing and make sure there was no pressure.”

Davis’ shooting forced Washington Township to switch out of its zone defense and go to man-to-man in the second half, but it was far too late.

“He’s a very good 3-point shooter,” East coach David Allen said. “He’s the best 3-point shooter we have, so we know what he can do shooting the 3. He really got hot this time last year, around February and March, and we are looking for that again.”

Thursday’s performance was a bit of a carry-over from the Cougars’ thrilling 54-52 win over Gloucester Catholic on Tuesday.

“We had a real tough game on Tuesday and Washington Township is a well-coached team, so we knew we had to come out with the same type of effort we did on Tuesday,” Allen said.

East—which will find out its playoff seed early Friday afternoon—has won five-straight games. Davis said the team is much more cohesive than it was earlier in the season, and they're ready to make a run at the Group 4 playoffs.

“I love it,” Davis said of the team’s play. “I know in the beginning of the year, our chemistry was a little off with a lot of new guys who hadn’t played varsity, but now everything is clicking and it looks real good.”

Allen is also excited about the Cougars play of late.

“They are playing very well,” Allen said. “They are stringing a lot of close games together. You want to be playing your best basketball this time of year, and they are.”