City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It was insanity. Bedlam. Pandemonium.

The crowd at Philadelphia University, which had already witnessed one tremendous PIAA semifinal as Neumann-Goretti topped Imhotep earlier in the evening in a AAA clash, had just watched Public League rivals Math, Civics & Sciences blow a 21-point lead against Constitution to end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard in overtime.

With the Mighty Elephants down two points and with 9.8 seconds remaining, head coach Dan Jackson figured they had to go for it all. Either his team would hit a game-winning 3-pointer, or they would lose trying.

“I told them to take the shot, let’s go for all the money,” he said. “Let’s go put all the money on the table and let’s take the big shot for the win.”

And for the second state playoff game in a row, Kwazhere Ransom came through.

The sophomore guard, whose game-tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation on Friday helped MCS survive Phil-Mont Christian, proved his steely nerves weren’t a fluke.

Out of the timeout, junior guard Tymier Johnson drove towards the right baseline, firing a pass back to Ransom. Ransom, a 5-foot-11 left-handed guard, took one step to his right as a defender fell down, and took advantage of the wide-open lane in front of him.

“I caught the ball, I jabbed, and it felt good when it left my hand,” he said.

It dropped, and a split-second later the buzzer sounded.

Cue the commotion.

Suddenly, Ransom found himself surrounded by teammates, coaches and hundreds of MCS students, parents and fans who’d supported the team vociferously all night long. In a split-second, he went from the young ballplayer who’d missed three of four foul shots a minute later to the savior of MCS’ title hopes.

“I was angry I missed the free throws, so I had to make it for my team,” he said. “I had to hit the shot. I had to.”

Constitution ended up getting one last try -- the officials added 1.2 seconds to the clock following the clearing of the court-storming -- but a 60-foot heave fell short, and the celebration began.

Down in the Philadelphia U locker rooms afterwards, MCS alum Jeremiah Worthem was celebrating with his former coaches and the players, giving Ransom a well-deserved nickname: "Big Shot."

The Mighty Elephants are headed to the PIAA Championships in Hershey for the first time since 2014 and third time since 2011, when they won their only state championship to date. There, they'll get western champion Kennedy Catholic and 6-8 West Virginia pledge Sagaba Konate.

But this one is by far the least likely trip yet, for numerous reasons.

“It’s unreal, man. Unreal. Unreal,” said a clearly-emotional Jackson afterwards. “It’s a great feeling, the obstacles and the hurdles, last year I had to take a leave of absence, all of that right now is going through my head. Hurdles, with us not having a gym, not getting a facility to practice in for two days a week until December, the players I have, I don’t have D-I guys, I have a bunch of guys that just leave it all on the floor. So to be here right now, it’s just unreal.”

Ransom finished with 13 points, second-most on the team, while juniors Malik Archer and Saheed Peoples had a dozen apiece.

The ending was fitting for a game that never seemed to quite make any sense.

Math, Civics & Sciences dominated the opening 26 minutes, building a lead that was 16-7 after one quarter, 41-25 at halftime and 61-40 at the end of three quarters.

That was largely on the back of sophomore forward Ed Croswell, who had 19 of his game-high 27 points in the first half. The 6-foot-6, 200-pound forward, who scored the first seven points of the game for his team, was at Constitution a year ago and certainly enjoyed helping his team overcome two prior defeats at the hands of the Generals this season.

“I sensed that it was going to be my day, I knew it was going to be my day since we started playing the game and I just took full advantage,” he said. “We had to take that game. We lost two games to them, and coming from my old school, I had to beat them, I just felt like I had to beat them.”

The lead reached 21 to end the third quarter but slowly shrunk down to 10 points with 3:52 left. A few MCS miscues and a 3-pointer by Tyree Mitchell got it down to 69-66 with 2:06 remaining, and another triple by Mitchell tied it at 69 with two minutes to play.

Junior forward Maurice Waters gave the Generals a 73-71 with a minute left on an old fashioned 3-point play, and Croswell answered for MCS with his final bucket of the game to tie it with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

“Constitution’s a very good team, well-coached, they’ve been here so many times, so I knew that they had the fight in them,” Jackson said. “They were in the Public League championship this year, so I knew at any time they could come back and punch us. They did that, thought we responded well, got it in overtime and did what we do.”

Junior Tamir Green and senior Anthony Satchell, who both had 22 points for the Generals, each chipped in a bucket in OT, and it was Satchell who went 1-for-2 from the line to make it a 78-76 game with 28 seconds left after Ransom went 1-for-4 in a five-second span with a minute to play.

Ransom's game-winning shot helped reverse a recent trend for MCS, which had gone 11-2 to Constitution over the last five seasons and had one just once in their prior nine matchups.

This one just about makes up for all the losses.

“It’s a city rivalry and to be the victor, be on the receiving end of going to Hershey, it is a little sweet,” Jackson said. “Me and [Constitution coach] Rob Moore have a great relationship and he does a great job with his program--but I’ve got one up on him this year.”