City of Basketball Love

Tim Merrick (@temerrick)
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The last couple of weeks during practice, Martin Luther King head coach Sean Colson has emphasized to his team the importance of closing out games.

The Cougars have let multiple leads slip from within their grasp slip in the latter portion of games this season. On Thursday night, with yet another fourth-quarter advantage, Colson’s team responded.

King held on to beat Math Civics and Sciences, 55-45, despite the Mighty Elephants cutting the deficit to two points with 5:30 remaining in the contest.

Cougars junior guard Denelle Holly led all players with 18 points, while junior forward Will McNair added 14 of his own. MCS saw three players finish with nine points, including senior guard Tymair Johnson.

“We’ve had leads against every team,” Colson said. “In all of our losses, we’ve had leads. MCS is a good team and we played them similarly to the first game. We led for the most of the game, and we just didn’t give it away this time.”

After jumping out to a 14-9 lead in the first quarter, the Cougars pounded the post with McNair and senior forward Elijah Kiah-El. Both the 6-foot-9 McNair and 6-foot-7 Kiah-El had size advantages over the MCS defenders. The duo hooked up quickly and often to surge King to an 11-6 run to end the half with a 29-22 lead.  

MCS continued to press King, hoping their defensive fervor would soon reap offensive benefits. At the end of three, the Mighty Elephants trailed by just five points. However, the team hit a dry spell in the final quarter, shooting just 3-of-14 (21%) in the fourth. King was able to make some shots from the charity stripe to seal the victory and avenge a loss to the Mighty Elephants earlier this season.

“In the first half, we came out real slow," Kiah-El said.  “But, we got it together and made free throws down the stretch when it counted. We lost to them last time, but we knew who their shooters were and what they would do, how they would double team and stuff like that.”

King lost to MCS by six points back on Dec. 20. That was followed by a three-point buzzer-beating loss against Delaware Valley Charter on Jan. 5. Last Thursday, the Cougars fell to Constitution by a three-point buzzer beater.

All of these losses came after fourth-quarter leads.

“We’ve just been giving these leads away,” Colson said. “We’ve played with everybody, we just can’t hold the lead and close it down. I’m happy today that we did that.”

Holly, McNair and Kiah-El played a big role in holding on to the win. The trio, all transfers, are coming along nicely in their first season with the Cougars. McNair, who transferred from Parkway Center-City and Kiah-El, who transferred from George Washington, have been able to play off each other’s skillsets to wreak havoc in the post.

“Usually, I’ll be at the high post and he’ll be down low,” Kiah-El said. “If I drive and they double team me, I’ll drop it down to him and he’ll get a dunk or something like that. If they don’t double team, I’ll go to the rack.”

Colson has watched the two grow with one another during the season. In the early stages, it was Kiah-El who was prospering, while McNair went through a longer adjustment period. Colson points to the change of pace of the Public League Division A as a possible reason for McNair’s slow start.

Recently, however, McNair has grown more comfortable in the Cougars’ system. As defenses began focusing on Kiah-El, McNair seized the opportunities given to him to grow into a potent scorer for Colson.

“He [Will] has gotten a lot better,” Colson said. “It’s showing on the court because he’s getting double-doubles every game now. I’m happy because those guys are working well together. It’s going well.”

Moving forward, King will look to utilize the inside as the playoffs approach. The win moved the Cougars to 11-6 overall and 2-5 in the league.They travel to Del-Val next Tuesday.  

MCS, meanwhile, fell to 11-5 overall and 4-3 in the league. The Mighty Elephants will face St. George’s on Sunday at Widener University before taking on Constitution on Tuesday.

Five games remain on the schedule for King. During that stretch, Colson hopes his team can build on the closure against MCS because he feels his team can compete with anybody in the Public League.

“We can beat anybody,” Colson said.  “We’ve shown that. We can, but it doesn’t mean we will. We have a chance to do big things. We have to concentrate during these last five games before the playoffs of playing well, but also closing it out in the fourth quarter.”