Vaux outlasts King in overtime

Sometime between the end of the first Public League semifinal Thursday night and the start of the second, the crowd in Southern's gym swelled to double its size, overflowing the bleachers and pushing the throng closer to the court.

Most conspicuously, St. John's coach Steve Lavin sat in a folding chair catty-corner to the baseline. A few feet behind him, a man stood in a UCLA shirt.

There was no secret whom they all came to see. And Rysheed Jordan gave them what they wanted.

The senior guard added to his playoff legend, lifting Vaux to its first Public League final by outlasting Martin Luther King, 71-68, in overtime.

Vaux (19-7), The Inquirer's fourth-ranked team, will play Imhotep Charter in Sunday's final at Temple.

"It's going to be a big event," Jordan said. "We're doing it for everybody that ever went [to Vaux]."

The school district will close Vaux in June.

Jordan scored 28 points and had five rebounds, five assists, and three steals. He shot 10 for 20 from the floor and 9 for 13 from the line, including two free throws with 6.2 seconds left to put Vaux ahead by three.

"I knew once I got the ball in my hands I was going to finish the game," Jordan said.

Jordan, whose college decision is down to Temple, St. John's, or UCLA, scored three points in the final 11 seconds Saturday to stun Math, Civics & Sciences in the quarterfinals.

Thursday, he scored only three points in the third quarter as he played with three fouls. But he banked in a three-pointer over Raquan Brown-Johnson to start his fourth, and scored 13 in the final quarter and extra session.

He had a chance to win it with 17.7 seconds in regulation, as Vaux got the ball out of a timeout at half-court after a brief delay to clear the court of spectators.

Jordan drove and kicked to the corner for a three that missed.

Brown-Johnson led sixth-ranked King (23-3) with 23 points. King, which lost to Vaux on a buzzer-beating three in double-overtime earlier this season, has yet to lose in regulation.

Vaux could have made this overtime less dramatic by making its free throws, but it shot 7 for 15 from the line in the period.

Sammy Foreman (13 points) put Vaux ahead for good, 66-64, with a putback after his own missed free throw.

That left Jordan to seal it, sinking the final shots as his large contingent of fans whooped and danced behind the basket, their party not ready to end yet.

Vaux   8 18 13 19 13 – 71

Martin L. King   11 15 11 21 10 – 68

V: Amir Butler 13, Trayvond Massenburg 2, Lester Mattox 2, Rysheed Jordan 28, Keith Fletcher 4, Sammy Foreman 13, Deron Johnson 2, Karon Snead 7.

MLK: Greg Bennett 13, Raquan Brown-Johnson 23, Fa'Teem Glenn 11, William Leak 8, Brandon McNair 2, Shakoor Woodson 11.