Strawberry Mansion tops Prep Charter

Saadiq Berry will certainly remember his final high school basketball season.

So far, the major memories are two-thirds poor, but at least the most recent one is quite nice. The freshest, too.

The occasion yesterday at Roxborough High - no spectators permitted because of an incident between the schools that took place last season - was a game between Strawberry Mansion and Prep Charter.

On the line was the fourth District 12 seed in Class AA for the upcoming state playoffs.

Berry was ready and focused. Phew, man was he focused.

The 6-foot, 165-pound combo guard, prevented from playing through the season's first 2 months as his former school, Future, contested his transfer, contributed 12 points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals as Mansion outlasted Prep Charter, 64-60.

All 12 points came in the fourth quarter. At the foul line. Because he was perfect there.

Oh, and 10 of the perfect swishes occurred over the final 1:31. A two-shot situation had begun his hot streak earlier in the quarter. From 1:31 forward he performed his Mr. Clutch act on double bonuses.

"I'm usually a pretty good foul shooter," said Berry, who last season averaged 24.5 points, the city's fourth-best total. "Never had an experience like that, though. Once I hit maybe the first three, I knew I had the rhythm. Just made sure to keep it. Use the right form. Follow through."

Except for his teammates' encouragement, the gym was quiet. (After the game, every single hand slap exchanged by the players could be heard across the gym.)

"I think I'm pretty good in pressure situations," Berry said. "But this was nice. Nothing to distract me."

Berry's second group of successes raised Mansion's lead to 56-51. He handled all of his team's scoring thereafter and every point was crucial, too, because PC kept pushin' and even crept within one, 58-57, on a pair of free throws by sub John Longo with 38.3 remaining.

Not long ago, Mansion had dreams of winning the Public League and City Titles, along with a state championship, and finishing with a perfect record. But in a round-of-16 game on Feb. 22, the 23-0 Knights were stunned by Ben Franklin, at home, a few hours after volunteer coach Stan Laws, who had been handling day-to-day operations all season, was sidelined following a disagreement with the principal, Lois Powell Mondesire.

The next day, all ties were cut.

Although Laws was in attendance yesterday, he sat silently across from the team in the stands as the longtime coach, Gerald Hendricks, who had been Laws' righthand man this season, ran the show.

"That was an emotional day," Berry said. "We shouldn't use it as an excuse for losing, but we were so upset about what was going on with coach Stan. Our minds weren't in the right place."

Berry said "a few" of the players were so upset about the Laws-Powell Mondesire dustup, they considered not bothering with the state playoffs. There were meetings and discussions and the decision to forge ahead was made.

"On that snow day last Friday, 'Henny' [Hendricks] got us together for a practice at Finley Rec," Berry said. "We got things back together. Worked hard. Paid attention. Went over all our plays. It paid off today."

After finally receiving approval to resume his career, Berry's first Mansion appearance was Feb. 2. The result: a five-overtime win over Imhotep Charter, which 2 nights ago won the Pub title.

"Nice win for us. Disappointing for me," Berry said of the five-OTer. "I didn't get a chance to do much. Plus I fouled out."

All those previous days of inactivity were difficult.

"Real painful," Berry said. "I knew my team needed me, but I couldn't help. I was ready to cry. I'd get real emotional about it.

"Coming back, I wasn't even sure what would happen. Whether I'd be in the rotation. I had to get my confidence back. I started off really slow. I'm still coming along, really."

Marquette commit Devonte' "DJ" Newbill totaled 25 points, eight rebounds and four steals for Mansion while Jamal Jones, a transfer from Imhotep, had nine points and 11 boards. Cedrick Powell dealt three assists and made two steals.

Freshman guard Abraham Massaley scored 17 points for PC while Laquan Stephens had 13 and Matt Hankerson (five assists) and Mark Wilmer (six blocks) halved 20. *