By Mark Giannotto; WASHINGTON POST
After senior Alani Moore hit the acrobatic game-winner and an entire sideline spilled onto the court in celebration, the Friendship Collegiate boys’ basketball team gathered in a circle and, on first-year Coach Bryan Bartley’s cue, collectively exhaled. They’ve started doing this a lot lately, to ease the tension during a season full of drama.
But after the Knights began this season with nine-straight losses — some were forfeits for using ineligible players — they’ve reeled off six-consecutive wins to take control of the D.C. Public Charter School Athletic Association standings. None were more satisfying than Saturday’s 60-58 victory at Riverdale Baptist.
“We believe in our captain, so we put the ball in his hands and he finished it off,” senior Emmanuel Johnson said. (Watch Moore’s game-winning shot here.)
Finding these set roles proved much harder than Bartley expected when he came to the Northeast charter school from Montrose Christian this past offseason.
Several players followed him from Montrose and the team went through a lengthy residency investigation by the Office of the State Superintendent and seniors LeAndre Thomas and Ike Okwara were not cleared to play until last month, and Friendship (6-9) was forced to forfeit games that Thomas and Okwara appeared in over the holiday break.
The success hasn’t been without nerve-wracking moments. On top of beating defending PCSAA champion IDEA in overtime last month with Thomas and Okwara back, the Knights also needed two last-second free throws from Moore to defeat IDEA, 63-62, in overtime last Thursday.
About 48 hours later, he delivered in the clutch again. Moore finished with 25 points going head-to-head with Riverdale Baptist’s Jamal Wright, a High Point recruit, but did his best work late.
Following a timeout with nine seconds remaining in regulation, Moore caught the ball on the wing, found his way through two defenders and swished a runner before the buzzer sounded.
“They’re starting to find ways to win no matter what,” Bartley said. “We’re starting to create an identity.”
But the Knights haven’t lost since those two were officially allowed to return to the floor on Jan. 19, and “we’re actually coming together and bonding and developing a relationship,” said Johnson, an O’Connell transfer who hit a three-pointer with less than three minutes remaining to give Friendship the lead against Riverdale Baptist Saturday.
The Knights have their sights set on qualifying for the D.C. State Athletic Association tournament, hoping it will serve as a proving ground for this new roster. Despite the shaky start, they were slotted into the No. 10 seed in the latest DCSAA postseason projections after this recent hot streak.
“We kept our head and kept fighting and got back to where we needed to be,” said Moore, a Temple recruit. “You’ve got to take everybody the same way, play everybody the same way and that’s just my mentality.”
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