Young began 2024 with three consecutive losses. The Dolphins lost to two St. Louis teams and Rich beat them on Sunday.
Then on Tuesday, 6-6 junior Antonio Munoz went down with an ankle injury. He’s the team’s best player and heart and soul.
Munoz plays with an intense motor. He scores, rebounds and protects the rim. Young coach Tyrone Slaughter has a plethora of promising, inexperienced players on his roster. But no one else can come close to replicating Munoz’s production.
Young’s talented young players found a way on Wednesday, holding off a veteran Westinghouse squad to clinch an important 67-65 win at home in Red-North/West play.
Sophomore Nasir Rankin scored 14 of his 17 points in the first quarter. Young (10-8, 3-1) built a 17-point lead midway through the second quarter.
“My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball,” Rankin said. “We were on that losing streak and I wanted to get us off to a good start.”
But it fell apart just as quickly. Westinghouse (13-5, 4-1) immediately countered with a 21-4 burst to tie the game at 38.
“We have been playing games like this all year,” Warriors coach Rafie Fields said. “We get down and know we can get back into it.”
Senior guard DJ Bolden led Westinghouse’s charge back, scoring 13 of his game-high 26 points in the second quarter.
“DJ is going to continue to put up numbers,” Fields said. “He’s one of the best scorers in the state. But we have to get back to starting strong. We haven’t been consistent with that.”
A three-point play from Bolden put the Warriors ahead 53-50 with 1:55 left in the third quarter. But Westinghouse didn’t score again for almost three minutes as Young retook the lead for good. The Warriors had two shots to tie the game on their final possesion but neither went down.
Senior Damajay Richardson had 10 points and four rebounds for the Dolphins. Sophomore Marquis Clark (nine points, four rebounds), sophomore Rico D’Alessandro (10 points, five rebounds) and freshman Howard Williams (eight points, four rebounds) stepped up in the second half for Young.
“It was an all encompassing effort,” Slaughter said. “The sophomores and a freshman came up with some big plays to help us beat a veteran, senior-led team.”
Slaughter said Munoz could miss a couple of weeks with his ankle injury. The Dolphins are dealing with the enviable problem of having too many talented young players on their roster.
“It’s a challenge,” Slaughter said. “Sometimes we play too many. Sometimes we don’t play enough. We are just trying to find that sweet spot. There is nothing positive about [Munoz] going down but we have a lot of pieces that can try to fill the spot.”
Young doesn’t have the record it expected to at this point in the season. And as Slaughter said, there isn’t enough playing time to go around to keep everyone happy. But the Dolphins are still hanging together and fighting for wins.
“It has taken some time to get everyone on the same page but for the most part we have good chemistry,” Rankin said. “We’re trusting each other and sharing the ball. Now it is time to go on a winning streak.”
