City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
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Every high school program ultimately wants to win a state championship.

That is the reason that the games are played, you want to finish on top, as the best team in the state.

But when the Martin Luther King Cougars defeated the Simon Gratz Bulldogs 56-55 to earn a place in the state tournament, coach Sean Colson was not exactly celebrating along with his players.

“My coaches and everyone is always getting me excited about the states,” Colson said. “I was always a Public league guy, it means a lot to me. We won the public league two years ago, it means a lot.”

King’s win on Saturday evening earns them a date with reigning A state champion Constitution at South Philadelphia High.

This will mark the fourth consecutive time that the Cougars will play in the public league semifinals, coinciding with the fourth year that Colson has been in charge of the King program.

“Nobody else has done that, everyone has gotten upset before the final four. We are the only team that has made it and that is a great accomplishment,” Colson said. “But that is not it, we don’t play for semifinals, we play for championships out here at Martin Luther King.”

King’s run to the semifinals and ultimately state playoffs, was almost derailed by an upstart Simon Gratz team directed by first-year coach Lynard Stewart, who was at Penn Charter the four years prior.

King trailed by as many as 10 midway through the third quarter before they escaped with a victory.

“They bought in,” Stewart said of his Bulldogs, who upset another 'A' team, George Washington, the round before. “They understand once they were getting stops, and obviously we were leading and scoring and getting points, that’s why they really bought in.”

King was paced by senior guard Jabri McCall who finished with 16 points, four rebounds and four assists.

“We told ourselves that we were not going to lose,” McCall Said. “I know if I lost, my season was over, no states, no semifinals, no nothing. We just pulled it together.”

McCall, at 6-foot already had an offer to Fairleigh Dickinson and recently picked up another offer to Morgan State. He scored his 16 points on 5-7 shooting from the field and 5-6 from the charity stripe.

He was aided by fellow senior Kahssian Kay who chimed in 13 points of his own to go with two assists. The 5-10 guard did the majority of his damage from behind the three point line where he shot 3-6, recording all 13 points in the second half.

“We just had a lot of energy,” Colson said. “So when we play with a lot of energy, I think we play well. But when we don’t, we are stagnant at times, our defense is not as good. We just gotta be energized all of the time.”

For Gratz, senior guard Tyriek Meridith paved the way, finishing with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists. He was helped by junior Johnny Eden who chimed in 16 points of his own on 5-7 shooting from behind-the-arc.

Jamal Goode, another senior guard finished with five points and six assists while a third senior, Nasir Campbell finished with 15 points and seven rebounds before fouling out with just about two minutes left in the game.

“They have some tough kids, so I knew they were going to give us a run, actually they were winning for most of the game,” Colson said. “I didn’t expect an easy game at all, it is late in the playoffs, so everyone wants to get to St. Joe’s next Sunday.”

King’s next task will not be easy, the aforementioned reigning state champions Constitution defeated Math, Civics and Sciences on Saturday to advance to the semifinals.

“I am going to have my guys energized,” Colson said. “I won it as a player in 1992 at Franklin Learning Center over Gratz, so it means a lot to me and my staff. Winning the pub and getting to the championship means a lot.”

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In the nightcap and fourth and final game of the Public League Saturday slate, Delaware Valley defeated Imhotep Charter 62-58.

Del Val was led by Semaj Motley’s 30 points, while Imhotep was paced by junior Daron Russell (20 points) and senior Jaekwon Carlyle (19).

The loss means that Imhotep, which finished the Public League’s regular season undefeated (10-0) in “A” division play, will leave District 12 as the three or four seed from the district in the PIAA Class AAA state tournament. Del Val, who will play either Neumann-Goretti or Archbishop Carroll for the District 12 AAA championship, will play Pub AA champ Mastery North in the Public League semifinals on Tuesday night at South Philadelphia High.