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Martin Luther King trying to find focus early on

12/20/2017, 10:15am EST
By Owen McCue

Denelle Holly (above) and MLK have picked up two quality wins after an 0-3 start. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Sean Colson didn’t think his team would need any extra motivation after the finish to last year’s season.

Heading into the 2017-18 campaign, Colson’s Martin Luther King squad was coming off an overtime loss in last season’s Public League final and another overtime loss to end their season in the second round of the PIAA 5A playoffs.

The Cougars started their season with a 14-point loss to Bethlehem Catholic and followed with a one-point loss to Sankofa Freedom and 17-point defeat at the hands of Imhotep to start their season 0-3.

Martin Luther King knocked off the Haverford School, the early Inter-Ac favorites, on Sunday and continued to right the ship on Tuesday, when they picked up a 76-69 victory against Math, Civics & Sciences, which went to the Public League semis last season.

However, Colson still thinks his team has room to grow.

“We won two in a row, but we’re still  just not focused all the way like I thought we would coming off the public league championship, going to the states again,” Colson said.

So far this season, Colson said he has struggled to get his whole team on the court at the same time. He was missing three members of his rotation on Tuesday and two others were forced to come off the bench.

Senior big man Will McNair missed the first quarter because he was late to practice. Senior wing Isaiah Anderson didn’t play the first half against MCS for similar reasons. Both made an impact when they got on the court. McNair finished with 10 points, and Anderson knocked down a three in the fourth quarter to halt a Mighty Elephants run.

“There’s just a lot of stuff going on that’s taking away from our team being the best it can be,” Colson said.

The biggest reason behind MLK’s run last season was in the gym on Tuesday night, but not in uniform. Former forward Elijah Kiah-El, who is is taking a prep year at Covenant College Prep, was much more than the anchor for the Cougars’ defense and a reliable low post presence last season.

“Elijah Kiah-El was really the glue of our team last year,” Colson said. “I wish he was still still here, but he’s not, so we gotta have Denelle Holly and some of those other guys step up and lead the team.”

Holly is the team’s senior point guard and the only returning member of the Cougars’ backcourt after Jihad Watson, who scored 29 points against MLK on Tuesday, transferred to Math, Civics & Sciences.

Andrews said Holly and McNair are the two guys the team looks to as its leaders.

“I’m just basically telling everybody, we good,” Holly said. “We not stressing anybody who left, or is leaving or not here with us. If we all play together and work together and work hard, we can win.”

"We're not locked in yet," Andrews added. "We gotta come together and trust each other."

If it can get all of its guys on the same page, Martin Luther King is certainly built like a team that can make a run in the Public League and PIAA playoffs.

The Cougars have plenty of size with McNair at 6-foot-9, Andrews and Anderson at 6-foot-5, and an experienced senior point guard in Holly.

The good news for Colson and his team is that they have plenty of time to figure things out.

They head to New York this weekend to play Jefferson and then head to Annapolis, Maryland for a tournament after Christmas before playing Bergen Catholic (N.J.) before New Year’s. The Cougars don’t play another Public League game until they match up with West Philadelphia on Jan. 3.

“It’s a long season,” Colson said. “It’s only five games in, but we already have given a couple games away, so we have to get a couple of those back during the season.


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