City of Basketball Love

Matt Allibone (@bad2theallibone)    

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In the moments after grabbing his 20th rebound, Samad West finally seemed to slow down. 

The Sankofa Freedom Academy sophomore trudged slowly up the court and seemed to lose balance after passing the ball to a teammate. Had West finally been overtaken by exhaustion  after three-and-a-half quarters of full-throttle effort? 

Nope, his shoe had just fallen off. West fixed the issue and was back to dominating the boards. 

It’s likely most high school basketball fans in Philadelphia haven’t heard West’s name before. But they might have to start taking notice. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound forward grabbed an astounding 22 rebounds to go with 11 points and two blocks in Sankofa’s 67-56 win over Chester Charter Academy in the PIAA Class 1A quarterfinals at West Philadelphia High School Friday night. 

Sankofa will now face Lancaster Country Day in the semifinals next Friday as the Warriors look to win their first state title since 2019. 

“All it was was effort,” West said afterward. “None of it was skill. Just effort. And hustle. I just had to stay locked in.” 

West is a first-year varsity player who head coach Isaiah Thomas pointed out had never been interviewed before Friday. He entered the evening averaging 7.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, but there is a clear rawness to his game. He shot 4-for-8 from the field but just 3-for-10 from the free throw line Friday. He committed four fouls. 

But he definitely undersold himself when he said there was “no skill” involved in his performance. His unrelenting effort was matched by impressive instincts, positioning and quickness. He had two offensive rebounds on one possession before finishing a putback. He snatched a teammate’s air ball and quickly laid it in before Chester adjusted toward him. 

His 22 rebounds could’ve been higher, but he tipped a handful of others to teammates after winning the box-out battle. 

“Samad is a beast,” Thomas said while emphasizing the last word. “You can’t teach that type of grind. We know he’s going to play his butt off.” 

West was a clear standout, but Sankofa needed contributions throughout its lineup to win an emotional and physical contest that lasted longer than two hours and featured over 100 combined shot attempts and 44 total fouls. 

Nafis Dubose scored 22 points with 18 coming in the second half. The 6-foot-3 junior also grabbed five boards and had two steals. Senior captain and point guard Asim Hardy scored eight points while attempting just four shots, but dished out six assists and grabbed four rebounds. 

Junior Nasir Brown had 10 points, five rebounds and three assists, and sophomore Terrance Fortson had 10 points and seven rebounds. 

The Warriors committed 25 turnovers, shot just 2-for-12 from 3-point range and 15-of-30 from the free throw line. But they still led by 17 in the final four minutes of the game. 

“We just stuck together,” Thomas said. “We definitely got exhausted. This is the first game in states where we used every timeout. (Chester Charter) played with a lot of energy, give them credit. I coached against (Sabres coach) Lonnie (Diggs) for a long time. Every timeout I just kept talking about composure and rest.”

Both teams came out trying to play fast. Chester Charter full-court pressed Sankofa from the start and never let up — even down double digits in the final minute. The Warriors countered by utilizing its size. West, Fortson and Dubose (all at least 6-foot-3) combined to score all seven of Sankofa’s field goals in the first quarter. 

Sankofa led by six after the first quarter, but Chester Charter briefly took a one-point lead when Sabres 5-foot-9 senior point guard Josiah Hutson converted a 3-point play with 3:44 left before halftime. Brown nailed a trey and Sankofa went into halftime up three. 

But the Warriors seemed to slowly wear down the Sabres throughout the third quarter. Chester Charter didn’t have an answer once Dubose began converting at the rim at will. It didn’t help that Sabres 6-foot-4 sophomore Maurice Barnes picked up his fourth foul midway through the quarter and was taken out of the game. 

The Warriors led by 13 entering the fourth and held off a Sabres team that kept pressuring them until the final seconds. Chester Charter made just one 3-pointer and shot 11-from-18 from the free throw line. 

Hutson led the Sabres with 18 points in his final game. 

“Last round we were down 10 at halftime (to Bethlehem Christian)  and we won the third quarter by 20 points,” Thomas said. “We got off to a slow start but it was OK. The message was just to remind them we do all of this in practice. We made a lot of layups in the second half. We wanted to pound the paint and exploit our size advantage.” 

This is Sankofa’s first time back in the state Final Four since its championship team in 2019. The Warriors had their 2020 stat run ended by COVID and bumped up to 2A the following year and never made it past the second round before returning to 1A this season. 

“The work continues,” Thomas said. “Our goal is a state championship. We’ll celebrate tonight and get back to work.” 

By quarter 
Sankofa 20-11-19-17-67

Chester Charter 14-14-9-19-56

Scoring
Sankofa: Dubose 22, West 11, Fortson 10, Brown 10, Hardy 8, Brown 3, Seals 3 

Chester County: Hutson 18, Gregory 9, Robinson 8, Groomes 8, Barnes 8, Feggins 2, Jones 2, Miller 1