City of Basketball Love

Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg)
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Back in the fall, before basketball season even started, Jonathan Kasibabu finished up a workout in the pool on the campus of the Westtown School and then went over to the track to continue his workout.

Enough time had elapsed between the two that the Congo native was late for dinner. While sprinting over to eat, he popped his hamstring, Westtown coach Seth Berger said.

He was out for a few weeks and then hurt it again when he came back, forcing him to miss all of December – when Westtown played the bulk of its national schedule. Kasibabu, a senior, then hurt his back, which forced him to miss a little bit of time in the beginning of January.

All things considered, the Westtown School basketball team has been at full strength for only a few weeks.

If Friday night was any indication, a full strength Westtown team is going to provide an uphill battle for any team trying to knock it off in the Friends School playoffs, and furthermore in the Pennsylvania independent schools state tournament.

In a matchup of two undefeated Friends League teams tied atop the conference standings, Westtown proved its dominance in a 66-46 win over Friends’ Central.

And it was Kasibabu who shined.

The 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward dominated the undersized Friends’ Central frontcourt, scoring 22 points while collecting 10 rebounds – five of which came on the offensive end.

“I’m not completely back yet,” Kasibabu said. “Every game you just have to go 100 percent and just try to forget what hurts. It doesn’t matter if you have an injury or not.”

Paired with 6-foot-10 sophomore Mohamed Bamba, the two gave Friends’ Central matchup problems it couldn’t overcome.

“Since Jonathon’s been back he’s enabled all of our kids to play their specific roles, the roles that are best suited for them,” Berger said. “He’s been a huge difference in our team.”

Before Friends’ Central coach Ryan Tozer could blink, his squad trailed 17-2. By the end of the first quarter, Westtown’s lead was 20-4 – thanks to a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from junior guardJair Bolden.

Bamba and Kasibabu combined for 10 of those points.

“The good thing is, we’re really talented and the kids are really smart,” Berger said. “I didn’t really have to tell them [to get the ball inside], they figured it out. They saw Jonathon and they said, well they can’t guard both Jonathon and Mo’, so whichever one wasn’t being guarded by DeAndre[Hunter] got the ball.”

Westtown (19-7, 7-0 Friends) led 28-14 at the half after a low scoring second quarter, which Bamba didn’t play in.

Early in the third quarter, Tozer was visibly frustrated with an official after an out-of-bounds call went against Friends’ Central. He was eventually given a technical foul.

Bolden’s free throw for Westtown on the technical put his club ahead 33-17 and Friends’ Central never got closer than 15 again.

The Phoenix’s Top 3 players, Hunter, Jon Lawton and Chuck Champion struggled shooting the ball for most of the night. When they finally got going, it was too late. They did, however, combine for 40 total points – Hunter scored 15, Champion had 13 and Lawton 12.

“We thought if we could make shots, we could compete,” Tozer said. “We just didn’t shoot the ball well. Their size really bothered us, we really had no answer for [Kasikabu]. We didn’t come ready to play. We got down big early and lost that game in the first five minutes of the game. Once we got down we were playing catch up the entire game.”

“There was a stretch there where we were just trading baskets with them. Once you’re down 15 and trading baskets, it’s not going to be good enough.”

Najja Hunter scored 12 points for Westtown. Bolden tallied 11 points and seven rebounds, joining Kasibabu and Hunter in double figures, and Bamba added nine points and five rebounds.

On the night, Westtown had a 31-13 advantage on the glass.

Westtown all but secured the first seed in the upcoming Friends League playoffs. Only a loss to Moorestown Friends coupled with a Friends’ Central (19-6, 6-1) win against Germantown Friends would prevent that from happening.

With a healthy Kasibabu, Westtown looks like a team poised to avenge its defeat in last year’s PAISAA final to Hill School – a team Westtown lost to, 57-56, earlier this year without Kasibabu.

Berger isn’t thinking that far in advance just yet.

“I know we got to beat St. Andrews on Tuesday in Delaware, we have Moorestown on Wednesday and we have the Friends League playoffs… we’re a long way away from states,” he said.