West Catholic creating a new basketball tradition

When West Catholic meets Neumann Goretti on Wednesday night at the Palestra, don’t be surprised if you hear a little James Brown blaring from the Burrs’ locker room before the game.

Adam “Budd” Clark and the Burrs will be looking for “the big payback” in the Catholic League boys’ basketball semifinals.

“I feel like this is a revenge tour,” Clark said Sunday before practice. “We owe everybody one …”

» READ MORE: Adam ‘Budd’ Clark is West Catholic’s confident floor general, and he does it on both ends

Another debt has been on the mind of Miguel Bocachica, now in his fifth season as West Catholic’s coach. When he arrived, the now 32-year-old was the program’s third coach in four years.

Bocachica said this is the first time the Burrs have reached the Palestra in back-to-back seasons in the school’s 127-year history.

“When I got here,” he said, “I had a great group of seniors and without them we aren’t where we are today. To their credit, they allowed me to come in here, they listened, they believed, and really allowed me to create a foundation.”

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The sixth-seeded Burrs (13-9, 9-4 PCL) face the top-seeded Saints (20-2, 12-1) in Wednesday’s nightcap. The festivities begin at 6:15 p.m. with No. 2 Roman Catholic (20-3, 11-2) taking on No. 3 Archbishop Wood (15-7, 9-4).

The Cahillites clipped the Burrs, 60-55, in January. West Catholic also slipped against the Saints, 57-56, earlier that month in South Philly.

Clark, who has committed to Coppin State, was fouled shooting a three-pointer with the Burrs trailing by three with three-tenths of a second left. The 5-foot-10 point guard finished with a team-high 21 points. No. 22, however, likely would have sent the game into overtime. Instead, Clark’s final free throw fell short.

“We learned a lot from that film,” Bocachica said, “not just about the Catholic League and Neumann Goretti, but about ourselves and what we need to improve. There were times we had complete control of that game and we kind of let it slip. So it hurt at the time, but we learned from it and just moved forward.”

West Catholic hopes last year’s semifinal loss to Archbishop Ryan is another learning experience.

“We were too focused on going to the Palestra instead of winning,” said senior forward Zion Stanford, who has committed to Temple. “This time … we’re not satisfied with just getting there.”

Earlier this month, Stanford and Clark were again named first-team All-Catholic League players, becoming the first duo in school history to earn the honor in consecutive seasons, Bocachica said.

“I started here as a freshman,” said Stanford, a 6-5 forward. “I saw how we’ve excelled as a team and it’s definitely good to see my teammates improve as well as myself, and then be able to make our mark on our school.”

» READ MORE: West Catholic forward Zion Stanford, a Temple recruit, is a pillar of the Burrs’ program

Clark, who transferred from Boys’ Latin as a sophomore, finished fourth in scoring (18.6 points), second in assists (5), and first in steals (4.5) per game during league play. Stanford averaged 15.6 points, shot 56% from the field, and grabbed 6.5 rebounds per game.

If the Burrs hope to unseat the defending champion Saints, who are led by the league’s leading scorer, star junior guard Robert Wright (22.4 ppg), they’ll likely need a third player to step up.

Last week, that was senior forward Shemar Wilbanks-Acqui, who had 21 points in the Burrs’ 71-51 win against Ryan.

“Honestly,” said Wilbanks-Acqui, who averaged 11 points in the regular season, “I’m happy that we lost [to the Saints] because now we get a chance to play them again and prove everybody wrong.”

The Burrs last won the PCL title in 1959. Win or lose, Bocachica hopes the program’s old and new can come together.

“I would just love to see a bunch of alumni come out and just see what we’ve got going on,” he said. “I know it’s been a long time since we’ve been doing what we’ve been doing the last two years, but I’d love for them to come back. … This place has a lot of tradition and I just want to tap back into that.”