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JTBL Report: Thursday, May 5

05/05/2016, 11:45pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The first week of the JTBL concluded on Thursday night as the eight Gold Division teams played their opening game of the 10-week regular season.

Here’s a notebook from the evening; full league results, schedules and leading scorers can be found here:

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Thursday’s Results
Imhotep Charter 81, Bishop McDevitt 42
George Washington 65, Cherokee 56
Archbishop Wood 89, Harry S. Truman 42

C.B. West 53, Pennsbury 44

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Fatayn Wesley (above) and the Imhotep freshmen impressed in a big win on Thursday night. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Imhotep’s youngsters impress in win

The future of the Imhotep Charter program will be on full display this spring.

With leading scorer and high-major Division I recruit Daron Russell taking it easy to let the underclassmen get as much playing time as possible, head coach Andre Noble will lean heavily on his group of seven rising sophomores during the JTBL. And they’re still going to contend for a JTBL title, if their impressive opening game against Bishop McDevitt was any indication.

Though rising senior wing Koby Thomas--one of two upperclassmen the Panthers dressed on Thursday night--led the way with 26 points, his teammates in the class of 2019 certainly made their mark on the game.

Chereef Knox, a fluid 6-foot-5 wing, had 16 points, including two 3-pointers. Fatayn Wesley, a 5-foot-9 point guard, had 15 points, including three triples. Donta Scott, Dahmir Bishop and Jamil Riggins (all of whom stand at least 6-4) combined for another 14.

Most importantly, they got valuable court time against a varsity opponent, after all but Scott spent most of their time on the junior varsity squad last year. With players like Jaekwon Carlyle and Josh Townsend graduating, Imhotep will have plenty of minutes available on the main team this year.

So the preparation begins.

“They’re talented but we want to get them used to some things,” Noble said afterwards. “Some things they’re working on in the gym, some things they need to work on together. We want to get them opportunities to play together.”

“The biggest hurdle I think for the guys is the level of intensity defending,” he added. ”Individually, they’ve got little individual things they’ve got to get better at [...] they’ve all got to work on the things that we’re working on with them in the gym.”

Noble admits that in his decade-plus run at Imhotep, he hasn’t had a class with this much collective talent: no fewer than five of the seven have Division I potential, and their presence will help make the Panthers a Public League and PIAA Class AAA favorite for the next three years.

Riggins (6-6, 200) and Scott (6-5, 195) are both physically impressive wings, while Knox (6-5, 185) is a little slimmer but smooth and athletic. Wesley is a speedy left-handed guard with quick hands and a smooth outside shot.

But now that they’re becoming sophomores, it’s time to start turning that potential into some production.

“Potential is a cool word, but if you don’t actually make those things happen, you end up going from having potential to you’re not good,” Noble said. “So potential, you’ve got to move that to being a good player, so that’s what they’ve all got to work on now.”

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Quick Thoughts

--Archbishop Wood had a good night from beyond the arc in its big win over Truman, knocking down 10 triples to start off the JTBL on the right foot. With Army-bound point guard Tommy Funk watching from the sidelines, his heir apparent at point guard Collin Gillespie dropped 17 points while sharpshooting rising senior Matt Cerruti had five triples for a game-high 20. Also playing well for the Vikings was a third rising senior, Keith Otto, who looked much more aggressive than usual in getting his 14 points.

--Strong performance in a losing effort tonight came from Cherokee’s Wiley Roberson. The rising senior wing, who’s certainly added a good deal of muscle to his frame over the last year, had 18 points to lead a shorthanded Chiefs, who had only five players to go up against an athletic Washington squad. Speaking of GW, the Eagles were led by rising senior forward Elijah Kiah-El, who powered his way inside to 16 points; matching him was rising junior guard Saleem Brown, who also had 16.

--After a close-fought contest that saw C.B. West take an early 22-11 lead and Pennsbury battle back to go up by a few in the second half, West’s Jack Traina sealed the win for the Bucks by going 8-of-8 from the foul line in the last five minutes. That’s certainly a good sign for head coach Adam Sherman, who will need unsung players to step up and make such plays considering the vast majority of his rotation from last year is about to graduate and move on to their various colleges.


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