Beulah Osueke drove the streets of Philadelphia reminding her graduating senior star, one she believed foreshadowed what West Catholic Preparatory High School girls basketball could be, to take college ball seriously. The two shared a passion, fueling each other, and in the longest conversation coach and player had, Osueke made a promise.
“We’re going to build and I got you,” Osueke told her that night. “You’ll be surprised when you come back and see us, because we’re going to be really good.”
A few weeks later, on June 12, 2016, Akyra Murray, one of the program’s few 1,000-point scorers, was the youngest of 49 people killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.