Zuri Harris (above) has been a great addition for Coatesville this season. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)
By Josh Verlin
The Pete & Jameer Nelson Play-By-Play Classic is one of the longest-running annual holiday events in the Philadelphia region, a multi-day event taking place at Widener University, honoring two of the best to ever play in the area by hosting some of the current top teams around on the boys side.
Many of this year’s participants — St. Joseph’s Prep, Malvern Prep, Coatesville, Lower Merion, Chester and Plymouth Whitemarsh — will play on both Wednesday and Friday, while a few others stop by for just one game.
It’s a total of 12 games, six each day; here’s a brief look at each of them:
Coatesville vs. Chester (8:00 PM)
This is a fun one to close out the first day, two District 1 6A schools with a lot of pride and hoops history behind them, both schools in the “Philadelphia area” but representing cities of their own, though the game’s in Chester’s backyard. Coatesville (6-2), which is one of the four contenders in the Ches-Mont National, is under the direction of first-year head coach and Coatesville alum John Allen, the former Seton Hall standout proving to be a success so far in his new position. He’s got a lot of interchangeable pieces to work with including senior Jeremiah Marshall (6-3), junior Dior Kennedy (6-2), junior Zuri Harris (6-0), sophomore Amon Fowlkes (6-2) and more, with Harris — a transfer from Cardinal O’Hara — giving them a really nice pop from the 3-point arc and as a facilitating scorer.
(click on this link for reviews of all of this tournaments games)