Lawrence leads Dobbins past PET Charter

Walter Lawrence would have preferred a fish sandwich, but considering the overall situation, the umbrella made sense.

It was handed to him by his father, Walter, shortly after Murrell Dobbins Tech claimed victory in a Public League round-of-16 playoff that was also a Class AAA semifinal.

"I'll need it walking home," Lawrence said.

Wait. Dobbins is in North Philly and its students almost always hail from the northern part of the city.

"I live down here in South Philly. Around 5th and Federal," Lawrence said.

Somehow, he was led to believe Edward Bok Tech no longer offers culinary arts.

"That's how I wound up at Dobbins," he said.

Yesterday, the 5-10, 145-pound sophomore wing guard looked like a wind-up toy.

As the visiting Mustangs bested Philadelphia Electrical Technology Charter, 78-65, in a game held at the EOM facility that dragged on for 2 hours, 2 minutes, and included 56 free throws in the fourth quarter, and 87 in all, Lawrence collected 25 points, three rebounds, two assists and nine steals.

Worked up a hunger, too.

"I love to eat," he said.

Um, the body does not indicate that.

"Oh, I do," he insisted. "I know I'm thin, but I eat a lot. I like to cook, too, and that's why I'm taking culinary arts. I mostly like to eat fish. Saturday was my birthday and my parents made me a nice buffet of seafood. Crabs. Shrimp. All kinds of stuff.

"I ate a whole bunch. And then I slept real good."

As Lawrence learned just last week, in the exact same facility, shuteye is not a good idea during a basketball game. Though they owned a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Mustangs were overtaken and suffered a 65-52 defeat vs. PET.

Guess what? With 4 minutes, 35 seconds left in this one, they also led by 14. But they maintained control, despite missing 19 of 36 free throws over the final 8 minutes.

At first, Lawrence was a main culprit, going 1-for-7 at the supposed charity stripe in the early part of the session. Somehow, he and franchise big man Jerrell Wright, a junior who contributed 24 points, 18 rebounds and nine blocked shots, combined to drain their team's last 10 attempts (six for Lawrence, four for Wright).

Before his late successes, Wright was 2-for-12 at the line (ouch!).

"I don't know what was going on," Lawrence said. "Maybe rushing? Maybe not letting the ball come off our hands the right way? At the end, I knew I was just trying to do that put-your-hand-through-the-rim thing. That worked."

With Wright and Lawrence leading the way, Dobbins jumped to a 12-4 lead. PET semi-regrouped and eased within 24-20, but space was again created thanks mostly to Lawrence's pilfers.

Due to shaky refereeing - at least five times one guy overturned another guy's call - the fan involvement was nuts. Finally, during a timeout, one PET supporter was escorted out of the facility by two cops after dropping an F-bomb at high volume, referring to the zebras as The Three Stooges and suggesting they should have been interviewed for this story.

A shade earlier, there'd been an and-two. Khalil Curtis' left arm was almost chopped off as he powered up for a shot that somehow went in. An intentional foul was called. He missed both free throws, but Basir Fulmore (nine points) hit an easy bank shot off the inbound play that made it 58-44.

From there the Mustangs made sure to remain in lock-down mode.

"You gotta play defense," Lawrence said. "If you want to make sure you get on the court, you have to prove to your coach you'll do it.

"Riding down here today, we did a lot of talking. We didn't want another loss to these guys. It was, 'Go hard or go home.' We knew what we did wrong the last time. We corrected it."

Courtland Gilliam, another soph, added 13 points, six rebounds, as many assists and three steals. He also wound up with a slight cut above his right eye. Carrington Ward tallied 23 points for PET while Kyle Baldwin grabbed 10 rebounds.

In all, Dobbins went 25-for-51 at the line to PET's 24-for-36.

Walter Lawrence then went home. And didn't get wet.