Keene leads Mansion past Delaware Valley Charter
WHAT'S THE prevailing thought most folks have while lying back in a dentist's chair?
WHAT'S THE prevailing thought most folks have while lying back in a dentist's chair?
You got it . . . This dude better not hurt me!!
And then there's Karon Keene, who is clearly not most folks.
When asked what thoughts bounce around inside his head, especially when the dentist is wielding one of those many instruments of pain, he shrugged and said, "I want to do this someday."
The 6-3, 185-pound Keene is a center for Strawberry Mansion High's basketball team and, yes, he hopes to become a dentist.
"Not sure why," he said. "It's just something that has always interested me. I wouldn't want to be a doctor. Too much stuff you have to know. But dentist? More [specific]. And I've always had a fascination with mouths."
Luckily for coach Matthew "Moo" Johnson, Keene did not open his trap and complain when told he'd have to serve the height-challenged Knights as a center. And Tuesday, like often this season, he showed height and weight are not always required if heart and savvy are present.
Keene shot 7-for-13 and 3-for-6 for 17 points, snatched eight rebounds and contributed two apiece of assists/steals/blocks as visiting Mansion edged Delaware Valley Charter, 63-58, in a Public B game at Simon Recreation Center, in West Oak Lane.
Keene jammed eight of those points into a 28-20 fourth quarter.
Like three teammates, he wasn't exactly golden at the foul line. And The Future Dentist knows the drill.
"We're going to be shooting a lot of free throws at practice [today]," he said, laughing. "Probably for an hour, at least."
Keene insisted that no tall guys are roaming the halls at Mansion.
"We have the 6-6 guy, Samir [Miller], but he's already on the team [as a deep sub]," Keene said. "I kept hoping all fall that maybe someone big would transfer in. That didn't happen.
"You could go around our whole school. There's nobody. It's kind of strange because Mansion had some 6-8, 6-10 guys right in the era before I got here. But if you work hard and box out and use your smarts, you can still do all right.
"I know I'm going to be a guard at the next level. So I keep working on those skills whenever I get the chance."
Though Mansion entered the fourth quarter facing a 38-35 deficit and the first two points went to D-V, anyone with a Keene eye knew what was coming next: a minicollapse.
All game, it seemed as if the Warriors were allergic to leads. Five points here, seven points there. They just kept going poof!
This time, Vernon Holt single-handedly got the Knights right back into it. He made a first free throw, missed the second, claimed the rebound out of a scramble and immediately stuck a jumper. Then he posted a steal and layup.
"Coach 'Moo' always gets us organized in the timeouts," said Keene, who lives on Hollywood Street, right near 29th and Huntingdon, in North Philly. "He keeps our spirits up. Sends us back out there with energy."
Mansion used that momentum to storm to a 59-51 lead and Arthur Bines provided the capper with a three-point play at 1:35. Oops. Now it was the Knights who couldn't handle the comfort zone, and they gave D-V great hope by missing 10 free throws down the stretch.
Finally, Keene kee-nected on the back end of a double-bonus at 6.3, then Ronald Nesmith (14 points, three treys, seven assists) recovered a deflection to thwart the Warriors' last gasp and followed with two free throws at 0:01. That last shot would have been dicey: D-V was 0-for-9 on treys.
Bines and Jermain Gregory halved 20 points. Fateem Brockington and Khayri King scored 17 points apiece for D-V while King and Andre Scriven had matching rebound totals (seven).
Keene is drawing some college interest, and hopes for much more.
"I need basketball to get me a free education," he said. "And then I can reach my dream of becoming a dentist."
Whirrrrrr!!! You might hate that sound. Karon Keene doesn't.
