Chester basketball team to play Wednesday after death of player

The Chester High boys’ basketball team will play a state tournament game Wednesday night, one day after one of its players was shot and killed in Chester.

Chester coach Keith Taylor said Wednesday afternoon that the Clippers would play Simon Gratz in a PIAA Class 6A second-round game set to tip at 7:30 p.m. at Cardinal O’Hara High.

“The game will go on,” Taylor said in a brief telephone conversation.

Taylor declined further comment on the death of sophomore Edward Harmon, who was shot and killed Tuesday along with another Chester High student, Tayvonne Avery.

Two people were killed and two were wounded in a shooting near a Chester basketball court on the 200 block of Broomall Street in Chester around 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Chester High basketball team announced Harmon’s death on its Instagram account on Wednesday morning.

“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we announce the passing of one of our own, Edward Harmon, Jr., passed away along with fellow student Tayvonne Avery yesterday in a senseless act of violence,” the account of chesterhighbasketball wrote. "A senseless act that has riddled our city time and time again.

“The Chester High Basketball team is in a state of shock and are grieving at this time along with the parents of the children taken from us in this tragedy.”

Chester, one of the area’s most fabled basketball programs, has a 23-4 record. The Clippers advanced in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A state tournament with a 76-63 win over William Allen.

Gratz, a Philadelphia Public League power, has a 22-5 record. The Bulldogs advanced with a 56-51 win over Garnet Valley.

The winner of the Chester-Gratz game will advance to the state quarterfinals Saturday and play the winner of the game between Reading and Freedom.