Jensen: What's it like to hang in with hoops superheroes? Friends Select found out vs. Westtown

The thought rippled through the sparse Friends Select contingent in that crowded gym at Westtown School. Someone on the bench said it first: Take a picture of the scoreboard.

Guests 11, Home 6. Forget the final score. Friends Select players wanted that memento of the time some hoops superheroes were down five to mere mortals.

They also sensed immediately that it wouldn't last.

These guys from Friends Select hadn't boarded their ten-seat bus at 16th and Race thinking they could pull off some epic upset. Talking about the game ahead, they weren't conjuring up David vs. Goliath fantasies.

You've had days that seemed stacked against you? Doesn't mean you can't have your moments.

Friends Select had some moments.

Westtown center Mo Bamba could be drafted into the NBA as soon as 2018 but Friends Select junior Charles Carlies will remember his own early drive on Bamba and a three-point conversion that gave Friends Select its five-point lead, the first thing Carlies mentioned in the locker room right after the game.

Just like Jacob Taranta noted a gesture of respect - how Westtown had switched Brandon Randolph, signed to play next season at Arizona, over to defend Taranta after his third three-pointer early on.

There's a reason a documentary crew was in the gym filming. Westtown has a spectacular collection of talent, as good as the Friends Schools League has ever seen.

Bamba had visited Kentucky the week before, and has all sorts of wingmen. Cam Reddish, 6-foot-7 with guard skills, has NBA written all over him, even as a junior. He has his pick of colleges.

Randolph, silky jump shooter, will be a good addition to Arizona. Junior Jake Forrester from Harrisburg has all sorts of Division I interest. Anthony Ochefu, the 6-7 younger brother of Washington Wizards forward Daniel Ochefu, ticketed for Stony Brook, was the star of the night.

Westtown had its own mission this night, to put on a good show.

The Friends Select guys? They've committed to their new coach, who has a pedigree in the game himself. But they don't play on travel teams - you'll more typically find them on city rec teams. They run cross-country and play baseball and soccer and tennis. One still plays on his rec volleyball team. Eight of them made it through tryouts: six juniors and two sophomores.

Down in Westtown's basement locker room before the game, one of the sophomores, listening to Friends Select coach Percell Coles talk about how they would front Bamba in the post, asked about his number.

"You'll know," one of the juniors said.

"I saw them on ESPN - the regular ESPN," another guy said about watching a recent Westtown game.

The Westtown coach, Seth Berger, walked by pregame and shook Coles' hand.

"Didn't he found AND1?" one of the Friends Select players asked, referring to the basketball apparel company. Coles nodded.

Friends Select didn't prepare for Westtown by using tennis rackets or any such gimmicks. The day before, they drilled the whole practice, fighting through screens, seeing the court on defense, staying within a small hula-hoop when making free throws.

They talked on defense, threw skip passes, practiced three-pointers, didn't get winded by making 80 full-court layups in five minutes using just two balls. They'd won four nonleague games in a row before losing a game they felt they should have won against the George School. Any win in the Friends School League would be a big one.

None are expecting to play at Syracuse or Villanova but junior guard Matt Chin, who first learned the sport playing rec ball in Chinatown, wore Syracuse shorts and a Villanova shirt.

They talked basketball at practice but when it ended, one JV player said to another, "What time do you want to go over bio?"

They're into ball. Most said basketball had turned into their favorite sport.

"I've always trusted the process," said Miles Rothman, junior point guard from South Philly and a huge Sixers fan.

Coles, the coach, played for Bill Ellerbee in high school at Simon Gratz and Rollie Massimino in college at Cleveland State.

Where did Coles play pro ball? "The Ukraine, Russia, China, Australia, Argentina, Switzerland," said Coles, who grew up at 24th and Allegheny and now lives in the Andorra section of the city. He paused to think, then added, "Mexico, Chile, Venezuela."

His goal for this game was simple, to make Westtown take them seriously, even for just a time.

"They did, didn't they?" Coles said later on the bus.

The vets on his team remembered how they'd played Westtown at home the previous season and the score was something like 25-1 after the first quarter and maybe 80-16 by the time it was over. All the Westtown stars didn't even play.

"They didn't care who they were guarding, I think their point guard was guarding me," said Friends Select 6-foot-3 post player Phil Sieg about that game, "and he was, like, my height anyway."

But the Friends Select guys knew the day before that this would be Westtown's senior night, that Bamba would be playing for sure.

"I"m excited, but I'm also nervous," Denis Widdicombe, a junior from Queen Village, had said, summing up the mood.

Kenny Park, a sophomore on the Friends Select JV, sitting right behind the bench, took video of Westtown warming up, then scanned over to his guys at the other end. He put it on Snapchat right away.

Park also took that photo of the 11-6 score.

"You get it?" a bench guy wanted to confirm.

By the time Bamba gets to the NBA, Carlies might tell the story of another play, the give-and-go where he passed the ball and then beat Bamba to a spot about 12 feet from the hoop, wide open. Except the 6-foot-11 top center in his senior class changes the definition of wide open. Bamba closed so fast that Carlies' shot went flying on one hop into the stands out at center court.

Taranta had experienced similar treatment from Reddish last year. Taranta had been sure he was open for a jumper - wide open, still true in his mind's eye - and still isn't quite sure where Reddish came from to swat the shot.

That's why Taranta's first shot of this game felt so big, a three-pointer from the right corner. Friends Select in front, 15 seconds in.

Did it last? By the end of the first quarter the superheroes were up 17-13, and would have been up more but for some missed dunks. Taranta's third three with 5 minutes left before halftime had pulled Friends Select within 21-16, but Reddish hit a three right back, Bamba added a putback slam, Randolph hit a three, Reddish had a slam and it was 35-16 at halftime.

While Westtown was upstairs during the break honoring Bamba for being selected to the Jordan Brand Classic all-star game (he's also a McDonald's all-star), Friends Select was down in the basement. They could hear the noise from up above. Coles, the coach, went to find a key to the locker room.

"Your number one priority is the guy on the opposite side - that's all their points, putback dunks," one player said standing in the hallway. "It's like five threes and putback dunks."

"We've got to watch backdoor cuts like crazy - they're throwing so many alley-oops," another player said.

"They're not trying to get in position to get the rebound," one of the forwards said. "They're trying to run in from the three-point line, so you've got to find them out at the three-point and you box out. You've got to back them up."

Coles came down and talked about passes that were thrown away, starting fast breaks. On one play, the coach said, Westtown defenders knew what they were going to do, "so now we've got to play basketball."

"Two guards, stay there. Bigs pop up. They're sitting on top of the screen, right at the top of the three-point line. Recognize that, go to the open space."

He repeated this: "Play basketball."

On made baskets, Coles called for a zone press. A natural thing when you're behind, but also maybe a message about playing fearless. "We need to pick it up a little bit. But we have to watch backdoor. Everybody's just watching the ball."

The third quarter was dominated by Westtown, up 60-23 by the end of it. Friends Select had some more moments such as when Chin, playing point guard, flipped a shot over Bamba along the baseline for his team's first points of the half. The fourth quarter, Westtown put its own mortals in and play was pretty even, the final score 71-36.

Nobody sounded down in the visiting locker room.

"Good effort, good effort," Coles told his team.

Not going to lie, it was pretty tough, one of the sophomores said.

"I never played in an atmosphere like that," Carlies said of the packed house, which stayed loud. "I was a little too hyped at that start. But I enjoyed the experience."

After Wawa hoagies were passed out on the bus for the hour-ride back to the city, the chatter continued.

"Bamba isn't a scorer. He's just really good at defense."

"He's not just 6-11 . . . his arms are so long."

"Randolph can shoot from anywhere. I don't think he missed a three today."

"Reddish tried that 360, I was like, 'Yo!' . . . If he had made that."

They talked about seeing Westtown again in the Friends School League title game. They weren't saying they were going to be playing in it. They planned to go watch.

"That game was a lot of fun to play in," one of the subs said on the bus.

Back in the gym, Carlies had been one of the last out of the locker room. The documentary crew put together by TV and movie veteran Mike Tollin was filming an interview with Bamba and Ochefu in the hallway. Carlies and his three-point play didn't come up.

"We should wait," Carlies said as he listened to the interview, in no hurry to leave the game behind.

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus