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Public League Playoffs: Robeson runs past Roxborough

02/07/2018, 8:15pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Walter Hester (above) and Paul Robeson HS blew past Roxborough in the second half on Tuesday afternoon. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Heading into halftime of a Public League first-round playoff game against Roxborough, Paul Robeson HS needed a spark.

The champions of the Pub’s ‘C’ Division this season, Robeson rolled into High School of the Future on a nine-game winning streak, but the Huskies were thus far unable to shake the Indians, who had come in third place in the ‘D’ Division.

Then, right before the half, they got the break they needed.

Five points in the final five seconds of the second quarter had Robeson feeling great in the locker room, and the Huskies maintained that momentum right into the third quarter, pulling away and cruising to an 84-54 win.

The margin of victory wasn’t nearly so apparent early on, as Robeson led Roxborough by just one point after one quarter, and it was a five-point game in the final minute of the first half.

After running off most of the final 30 seconds of the second quarter, Robeson’s Troy Butler attacked the bucket with his right hand, finishing a tough shot through contact with five seconds left. Roxborough then turned the ball over, traveling on the inbounds play, and Robeson got the ball right back under its own hoop.

Huskies junior Walter Hester spotted Shaun Pittman in the corner, delivered a perfect bounce pass and Pittman knocked it down at the buzzer for a 12-point halftime lead.

“It brought us motivation, energy going into halftime,” Butler said. “We started off the game slow and weren’t so good that first half, so in the locker room we wanted to come out strong with some energy.”

That they did, blitzing the Indians out of the gate in the third quarter, opening up a 20-point lead within the first four minutes of the third quarter; the gap got to 30 by midway through the fourth, at which point both coaches let their reserves play it out.

Hester, a 6-foot-tall junior guard and Robeson’s leading scorer on the season at 19 ppg, finished with a game-high 25 points, including six 3-pointers on nine attempts. Most of those were assisted; as a team, Robeson had 18 assists on 33 buckets, a strong ratio for the high school level, especially in an uptempo game that saw a number of fast-break layups.


Troy Butler (above) and Hester are the only two returning starters from a 12-win team last season. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Butler, a 5-11 senior and along with Hester one of two returning starters from a year ago, had nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Those two are the heart and soul of the Huskies, but were far from the only producers.

Senior Robert Tucker finished with 10 points and eight rebounds; Davante Smith had 11 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals; Makell Hill added seven points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Junior Nyaim Smith, a 6-4 forward who’s missed the past two seasons with broken legs, chipped in 10 points off the bench, including eight during the second quarter to help Robeson stay in front. That group, plus sophomore Eddy Harris (four points, three rebounds, two assists) has been the core of a Huskies squad that’s now 19-3 on the season and finished 12-1 in its Public League division.

Like many teams in the lower levels of the Pub, the Huskies are stocked full of players who fly under the radar, but they’re used to that. Paul Robeson High School for Human Services is a city-wide admissions public school of under 300 high schoolers; located in University City at 42nd and Ludlow, it’s the only school in the city that focuses on things like nursing and HRT (health-related technology).

Powlen, who played at the tiny Crefield School in Chestnut Hill, has been the head coach at Robeson since 2005-06; during that time, he’s turned out two Division I players in Jay Harris (Tennessee State) and Brandon Penn (Rider), and been to the state tournament three times, though never further than the first round.

“It would be great, we didn’t make it last year because Masterman had a great team last year and we were a little down and they beat us,” Powlen said. “This year we want to get into states and make some noise, we want to go far.”

Last year, the Huskies finished 12-10 in the regular season, then lost their first-round Public League playoff game to Masterman under the old format, which pitted schools in the same PIAA classification against each other in the early rounds.

This year saw the change to a mixed-classification bracket, with four mini-brackets of eight teams each; Robson was the No. 3 seed and Roxborough No. 6 in this “region,” which features No. 1 seed Imhotep and the Huskies’ second-round opponent, No. 2 Bartram, which beat Eastern University Charter.

Powlen gave a good deal of credit for his team’s turnaround to his two assistant coaches, Daniel Mack, known to the team as “Mack Truck,” and Jahir “Juice” Lee, who both played at Robeson under Powlen.

Three teams in Robeson’s 2A classification will advance to the state tournament. It’s assumed that two of those spots will come from Constitution and Math, Civics & Sciences, who both compete in the top division of the Public League and routinely make it to the semifinals and championship games of the league and state brackets. The third spot is between Robeson and Motivation, who has to play No. 1 seed Sankofa in its bracket on Friday.

If Motivation loses, Robeson is in the state bracket for certain. If Motivation wins, then it comes down to second-round results; should both lose at the same point, they’ll face off for the right to earn that spot. If one makes it further than the other, that locks it in as well.

Obviously, Robeson is rooting hard for Sankofa -- but if they need to handle matters on their own, they’re confident. After watching Masterman make the state quarterfinals a year ago before losing to MCS, the Huskies are itching to get their chance.

“I feel like if [Masterman] can do it, we can do it,” Butler said. “This team right here, I think we can win states.”


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