City of Basketball Love

Matthew Ryan (@matthewryan02)
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COATESVILLE, PA — With under 1:15 remaining and up by just one point against Trinity, West Philadelphia's Nasir Washington showed he's not afraid of pressure. The junior drilled a 3 to give the Speedboys a four-point lead, and after the Shamrocks cut that to two, Washington drove to the basket for a layup to extend the lead to two possessions again.

They were the five biggest points of his 27 on the day, helping push West Philly to an 80-77 victory and a spot in the PIAA Class 4A quarterfinals for just the second time in school history.

"This guy [has] been clutch," West Philly head coach Adrian Burke said of Washington. "Our last four games, he's been clutch, hitting big baskets after big baskets after big baskets. [...] Nothing scares him, nothing fazes him."

Washington and the Speedboys started the game off rather quietly. The 6-foot-3 guard was scoreless in the first quarter, and West Philly (21-5) entered the second frame trailing by six. But the Speedboys jumped out to a lead, thanks in part to a 6-0 run by senior Deyishon Miller, and dominated the quarter, outscoring Trinity 30-15. 

Washington scored 10 points in the period, highlighted by a tough 3 at the buzzer to give his squad a 42-33 lead heading into halftime. That 3 was his first of four on the day, with many of them coming from well beyond the arc.

"He's a real good shooter," Burke said. "He knows his job is out there to shoot […] and that's what he did."

The Speedboys had all the momentum at the half, but right out of the break, it was clear that Trinity (19-7) wasn't going to fold. In the blink of an eye, 93 seconds of game time to be exact, the Shamrocks went on an 11-2 run to tie the game at 44.

The run came as no surprise to Burke. He knows it's a part of the game. In fact, he had even warned his team about it at halftime.

"I tell my team all the time, it's a game of runs," he said. "They're going to have a run, we're going to have a run, then they're going come back with a run. I said to them, 'We're going (to) come out here in the second half and they're going hit us with a run. We just got to withstand their run, and we (will) be the last team to have a run.'"

A run, and a game, like that has the potential to stun a team. But given what the Speedboys have been through over the last three games, they were prepared.

West Philly was coming off a dramatic 59-58 victory over defending 4A state champions Allentown Central Catholic and, before that, had lost to two of the best teams in the state in Imhotep and Neumann-Goretti.

Those two games — against the Public League and Catholic League champions — got the Speedboys ready for the state tournament.

"It really prepared us for the states because I think our guys refocused and started really paying attention to detail on the court," Burke said. "I think we don't rattle now, like, we don't get rattled. I mean, we played the best two teams in the area, and coming out here, playing against these guys, we're just not going to rattle."

The rest of the game went back and forth down to the wire. In the end, after Washington's clutch plays, Miller went to the line up by one with only 0.9 seconds to go; he knew what was going to happen.

"This normally happens when there's a close game. I go to the free throw line," Miller said. "It's like 100 percent when I'm at the line at the end of the game."

He nailed both shots, and Trinity's inbound pass was picked off, sending the West Philly bench into a frenzy.

"I don't take nothing for granted," Miller said. "Any game, it could be my last, so I just tell them every day when we got a game, I give them a little speech in the morning telling them like we got to play for each other and with each other in order to win every game. And [...] we did that. At the end of the game, we didn't shake, we didn't do nothing, we just kept playing."

Miller finished the game with 21 points, joining Washington as West Philly’s only double-digit scorers. Bryan Skurcenski led Trinity with 24.

With the win, the Speedboys are in the state tournament Elite Eight for the first time since 2017, when Burke was still an assistant coach with the team. On Tuesday, West Philly will face Dallas in a quarterfinal matchup, a big step towards their overall goal of winning it all.

"We're at the Elite Eight, man," Burke said. "Just keep winning, just keep winning. It's only one game. It's not a series. So we're gonna put on a show, we're going to give y'all everything we got.

"We want to get to the Final Four, and we want to win the whole thing. But we [are] gonna take it one game at a time. We ain't going to get ahead of ourselves [...], but that's our goal. Our goal is to get to the state championship."

By Quarter

Trinity:          18  |  15  |  27  |   17   ||  77
West Philly:  12  |  30  |  18  |   20   ||  80

Scoring

Trinity: Bryan Skurcenski 24, Trey Weiand 15, Owen Schlager 15, Julian Gabbidon 14, Talik Wall 5, Cooper Manley 3, Wayatt Cooper 1

West Philadelphia: Nasir Washington 27, Deyishon Miller 21, John Fields 9, Nasir Davis 7, Jihad Pickens-Brown 4, Jabrill Jackson 3