City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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PHILADELPHIA — James Lewis had a feeling that the bucket was coming. As the first-year West Catholic head coach walked in the dressing room Tuesday night, he asked his team to hold up, but they got him anyway. Dousing their coach was a cool way to celebrate Lewis’ first victory as the Burrs’ head coach, after watching his team battle by a good Dobbins Tech team, 80-66, to open West Catholic’s season.

This is a year of transition for the Burrs, the defending PIAA Class 3A state champions, who lost their coach, Miguel Bocachica, after seven seasons at West Catholic, to pursue a fulltime coaching opportunity in Atlanta.

Bocachica did not exactly leave the West Catholic shelves barren. The Burrs return one of the most potent players in the Philadelphia Catholic League in stalwart 6-foot-7 senior forward Kingston Wheatley, who committed to Florida Gulf Coast University during the summer. Determining a college destination took some stress off Wheatley, who added 15 pounds in the offseason in push to be more assertive on the court.

That was demonstrated early against Dobbins Tech, when Wheatley scored 17 of his team-high 22 points in the first half. He snared eight rebounds, blocked three shots and played with a sustained assertiveness that came sporadically as a junior.

Wheatley is the face of the Burrs and embraces his new role.

“Being the only senior and being here the longest, I’m the one who has to keep the younger guys in check and to keep the energy up,” Wheatley said. “I worked on being, more consistent this summer. I had to grow up and mature and learn to play the same way every game. This is just a start. But I didn’t have anything to do with the bucket. I like Coach James a lot. The defensive intensity is the same, we just all buy in, not just couple people playing defense. It’s the whole team committed to playing intense defense.

“We had some good moments and we have to keep the same energy. We got a little cold at halftime, but we heated up again.”

There was a lot Lewis liked. The Burrs scored 80, and they did it with five different players scoring in double figures, following behind Wheatley’s 22, was Nyiere Farlow and Jayden Ortiz-Muhammad each dropping 14, Eric Scott chipping in with 11, and Xavier Fauntroy scoring 10.

The Burrs had their moments, breaking open what had been a close game with a 10-0 run to begin the second quarter, giving them control. West Catholic also had its lulls, like when the Burrs could not keep pesky Dobbins down, especially 6-foot senior guard Haneef Davis, who led the Mustangs (1-1) with a team-high 22 points.

Each time it appeared West Catholic was going to run off with blowout, Davis put the Mustangs on his back and pulled to within a reasonable striking distance. In one two-minute sequence in the third quarter, Davis scored six of Dobbins’ 10 on a 10-0 tear.

“We didn’t want to play on emotion, we wanted to play hard,” Dobbins Tech coach Derrick Stanton said. “We played on Saturday up in Brooklyn to prepare for a team like West Catholic. The crowd would get into it and we knew that. West is very athletic and very fast, but we didn’t use backdoors as much as I would have liked to, and we created some solid shots for ourselves.

“We needed to be more patient and we need conditioning. After a while, fatigue hit us. I’m asking our guys to do a lot, and Haneef does a lot for us. Last year, he was our third option. He is ready to accept that role. Since he was a freshman, he has that instinct knowing when to turn it on and get us going.”

There was one West Catholic player who may be worth watching as the season progresses. Farlow is a 6-3 junior guard who was all over the place. He received no varsity time the previous two years, and his 14 points against Dobbins was a career best.

What was so intriguing about Farlow was his unmatched intensity on both sides of the court. He blocked four shots, and would have blocked five, if he was not called for a foul. He grew five inches and added 30 pounds since his freshman year, and was in the face of every opposing player he defended.

“I’ve been here the last two years and I’m getting my chance,” said Farlow, who added 20 pounds since last year. “They call me ‘The Claw’ for a reason. It’s an attitude. I sat there last year in Hershey in the state championship, and this year is my year to play hard.”

When the Burrs were running well in the second quarter, they could play with any team in the city. Lewis was pleased. Then, in the third quarter, the Burrs tended to get a little selfish, opting to go one-on-one, and not sharing the ball as they did in the first half.

“Derrick is an excellent coach and his guys play hard, this was a good win for us,” Lewis said. “Offensively, we have to share the ball more, and we don’t preach one-on-one here. There were guys playing in front of their families, their teachers, their friends, we were a little out of character tonight. We scored 80 points, but we also gave up 66.  

“So, there was a lot to like, and a lot to dislike. We have Abington next in their gym, so we better get better quick.”

By Quarter

Dobbins Tech (1-1):  20  | 10  |  20  | 16 ||  66

West Catholic (1-0):  22   | 21  |  18  |  19 ||  80

Scoring

Dobbins Tech: Haneef Davis 22, Hasan Laws 13, Khaleef Agbemehia 12, Kyyir Roberts-Moore 12, Zahmir Green 7.

West Catholic: Kingston Wheatley 22, Nyiere Farlow 14, Jayden Ortiz-Muhammad 14, Eric Scott 11, Xavier Fauntroy 10, Rakim Johnson 6, Yasai Rozier 2, Rahmir Speaks 1.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.