South Philly Review

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Its members cannot match the renown of the ballers at Ss. Neumann-Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St., but the boys’ basketball team at Edward Bok High School, 1901 S. Ninth St., has given East Passyunk Crossing residents another squad to feel thrilled to support.

A welcome combination of factors has sparked the latter, which downed Roxborough, 66-54, in a Tuesday home tilt to claim the Public League’s Division D title. The game helped the Wildcats to rebound from Friday’s 62-52 nonleague road loss to Universal Audenried Charter High School, 3301 Tasker St., which showed the afternoon crowd that the postseason should offer compelling competition.

“Added structure and discipline,” coach Greg Frangipani, of the 1900 block of Forrestal Street, said just before Friday’s tipoff of his group’s success.

Formerly the girls’ leader, he became the boys’ chief when the position opened following the April 9 passing of Lloyd Jenkins. The deceased coach’s last team registered a 4-13 mark that included a 66-64 triumph at Audenried, but Frangipani’s senior-heavy initial group arrived in Grays Ferry with a 14-3 record.

As Audenried represents the Public League’s Division C, the contest presented only a chance to grab bragging rights.

“This is like their NBA championship,” assistant James Jones, a 2006 Bok graduate said. “Let’s keep our intensity high.”

A resident of the 1500 block of South Mole Street, he last year concluded his collegiate career at Doylestown’s Delaware Valley College, turning the Aggies from doormats to Division III contenders. He began conditioning the players in September and, like Frangipani, saw following Jenkins as a massive, yet educational challenge.

The host Rockets, coming off a 14-4 season yet struggling at 6-11, sought to send the Wildcats back to their turf with a need for further instruction. The guests, without senior guard and leading scorer Sean McLean, who was recovering from a twisted ankle in a Jan. 26 road win over Bodine, seemed unprepared and yielded the game’s first 11 points. Pass-happy, the visitors finally worked the rock to junior guard Deonte West, whose free throws four minutes in began their scoring and helped them to feel free to fire more shots. Hesitation slightly remained yet Audenried’s 20-12 bulge after the first quarter bred optimism.

“I guarantee you they will fall if you take shots when you’re open,” Jones said as his charges vowed a turnaround.

Conversions came in the second frame, as the Wildcats balanced interior and perimeter offerings. Guard Rasul Jackson used his lethal lefty shots to bury two three-pointers, and fellow sophomore guard Jeff Spearman added a triple that put Bok up 25-24 with halftime approaching. Two buckets put the home team ahead 28-25 as the combatants regrouped in their locker rooms.

“The defense was much better in that quarter,” Frangipani said as his athletes devised ways to fashion a negative beginning to their host’s weekend.

With a 10-1 league mark prior to Tuesday’s regular-season finale, the Wildcats had clinched their first playoff berth in three years and had already amassed one more conquest than the last two squads managed to win altogether. Their total also topped the nine overall wins for the ’08-09 outfit, which lost its playoff opener to Simon Gratz. This year’s players wanted to brush aside Audenried to prepare to take the division title, which they earned by stunning previously undefeated Roxborough. In a season that has featured a mix of blowouts and nail-biters, they knew the Rockets would want to launch more offenses.

“Kick the ball out to the open man,” Jones, whose 1,526 postsecondary points prove his willingness to hoist jumpers, said as the youngsters headed out to overturn the deficit.

<strong> The assistant, armed </strong> with a number of offensive and defensive strategies that he dubbed “Memphis” and “West Virginia,” among others, implored senior Jaleel Bennett to up his intensity, and the ballhandler obeyed by tallying seven of his team’s 12 third-quarter points and playing tight defense. Little separated the adversaries, with Bok shaving one point off Audenried’s lead to make the affair a 39-37 battle as the final session began.

“Tighten up,” Jones commanded as Audenried looked for interior openings.

The last eight minutes featured the day’s most frenetic action, as the hosts looked for payback for last January’s loss to Bok and the visitors hoped to make the frenzied crowd, with assistance from cheerleaders with more encouraging words than a self-help guru, go silent. Senior guard I-Meir Martin, appeared destined to stun the spectators.

The team’s second leading scorer, he deposited 10 of Bok’s 15 points in the period, with a beautiful three-pointer giving the Wildcats a 47-45 edge with four minutes left. Sloppy ballhandling and shoddy foul shooting let the Rockets assert themselves, as they registered 17 points over the last four minutes to delight their fans. Managing only five over the same stretch, the Wildcats shook hands as a double-digit victim.

“I’m not mad,” Jones said to the Bok contingent. “I like the intensity, so pick your heads up.”

“So you don’t get bragging rights,” Frangipani said. “Go get the division title.”