Top cat

Marquise Salley enrolled in Bok Tech expecting to learn the plumbing and electrical trades.

But when the school dropped that program, Salley opted to focus on the culinary arts.

The 17-year-old receives his training in the school’s Bok Diner, where he cleans, helps maintain the kitchen and whips up the occasional batch of chocolate cookies.

But in his senior year, Salley has really been cooking on the basketball court, where his mixture of lay-ups and jumpers have led the Wildcats to a 6-5 record.

The 5-foot-8 guard ranks among the Public League’s top scorers with his team-high average of 24 points per game.

Salley, of West Philly, stepped up just in time for the Wildcats, who lost a combined 42 points from 2004 grads Jamal West and James Pope.

Coach Lloyd Jenkins opened the season expecting that Salley — one of only four returning varsity players — would fill the void.

Salley made an immediate impact by scoring 27 points in the Wildcats’ regular-season opening win over West Philadelphia. He also racked up 20 points in an overtime win against Martin Luther King and a season-high 30 in a loss to University City.

The athlete is enjoying the switch from supporting player to top scorer. In his junior year, Salley’s season high was 18 points and he only scored 10 points or more three times.

"Last year, I was more of a passer," he noted. "This year, I am scoring more and helping take care of the ball."

The Wildcats have a solid one-two punch in Salley and senior guard-forward Lamont Butler, who is scoring 14.7 points per game.

Salley feels so much responsibility in his new role that he even plays through hardships — like the cut above his eye he suffered in a Jan. 13 win over Roxborough.

"I was hurting until I put eye wash in," said the player, who went on to help Bok beat rival Furness, 71-41, on Tuesday afternoon.

Salley, whose favorite NBA player is LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, scored 15 points.

The Wildcats played the game in football weather, thanks to a lack of heat in the school. With the temperature a frigid 20 degrees outside, a small crowd of spectators sat in the stands wearing winter jackets. The players donned their warm-up suits if they were on the bench for a while.

But Salley was unfazed.

"It was cold, but I warmed up quickly."

If the player’s game stays hot, he could realize his goal of helping the Wildcats represent the Public League in the PIAA playoffs. Bok, which plays in the AAA classification of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, will close out the regular season with today’s home game against Swenson and a Feb. 8 contest at Overbrook.

The Public League’s top four AAA teams will compete in a postseason tournament to decide Philadelphia’s PIAA representative.

In November, Bok’s football team made Public League history by becoming the city’s first squad in any sport to go to the state tournament.

Strawberry Mansion (8-2) and Parkway (6-4) are the only AAA teams with better basketball records than the Wildcats. Bok lost 70-63 to Parkway in their Jan. 11 meeting.

No matter what opponent the Wildcats play, Salley will be an essential ingredient to his team’s success.

Always eager to make contributions, the athlete checks the Bok score book after games to see how many points, rebounds and steals he recorded.

The athlete hopes his steady performances impress college coaches looking for a talented guard. Salley would like to attend school in or near Oklahoma, where he lived before moving back to Philly five years ago.

But if he doesn’t play basketball beyond high school, he has a viable plan on the back burner.

"If I can’t make it with basketball, I would like to go into the restaurant business as a chef or a cook."