City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Imhotep coach Andre Noble was really concerned about one statistic when his team faced Chester on Tuesday night.

"They’re an athletic team, and we thought if we could win on rebounding, we’d win the game,” Noble said. “And if we lost that battle, we’d lose the game.”

The Panthers outrebounded Chester by 10, and just as Noble predicted, they also outscored them, 67-54 on Day 1 of the Jameer Nelson Classic at Widener University.

The leading rebounder in the game was Imhotep junior Koby Thomas, who had 11 boards as the Panthers held a 34-24 advantage on the glass. Thomas didn’t just rebound, however. The 6-foot-6 forward also recorded a double-double with a team-best 13 points – a handful of which came via putbacks on the offensive end.

“That’s all we were worried about,” Thomas said when asked about rebounding. “They’re a big team, so we focused on controlling the ball and rebounding. We just had to play physical with them the whole night, because we knew they’d do it with us.”

Chester did have its way with Imhotep early, however. The Clippers jumped out to a 16-6 lead about five minutes into the game and really controlled the first five minutes. Imhotep wasn’t able to execute on the glass because Chester wasn’t missing many shots.

But Noble didn’t call a timeout. Instead, he trusted his offense and backcourt of Jaekwon Carlyle and Daron Russell. And they, with some help from Thomas, pushed the Panthers on a 10-3 run to close their gap to three points after eight minutes.

The second quarter, on the other hand, was all Imhotep. On the second play of the quarter, after the Panthers had already cut the deficit to one point, Thomas had a steal and scored on a breakaway while being fouled. It gave Imhotep its first lead, and the team never looked back.

“When he is rebounding and playing well on the defensive end, he is a really really good basketball player,” Noble said of Thomas. “To his credit, he’s been really trying to make himself better in those areas. We talked to him, but he really recognized it and he wants to get better.”

Thomas was active in all facets of the game and added two steals and a block to his already impressive stat line.

“Rebounding just makes you play better and go harder, and the same thing with defense,” he said.

The Panthers improved to 7-2 on the season and Carlyle and Russell both finished with 12 points, while sophomore Bernard Lightsey added 10 off the bench. Jamar Sudan led Chester with 15 points while point guard Kahleeq Campbell had 13 with the help of 3-pointers.

In the rebounding department, Thomas was aided heavily by his starting front court mate in senior forward Joshua Townsend, who had six boards and also added nine points.

And it wasn’t like Imhotep was doing this against a short opponent. Four players in Chester’s starting five are at least 6-3, including 6-7 Marquis Collins and 6-8 Maurice Henry.

“We told Josh and Koby they did a hell of a job in there,” Noble said. “They played hard and it resulted in some baskets on the offensive end. I was happy with how we battled.”