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Public League Playoffs: Championship Preview (Feb. 23)

02/22/2017, 11:30am EST
By Josh Verlin

Daron Russell (above) and Imhotep are trying to go 6-for-6 in Public League championships. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Since its inaugural hoops season in 2001-02, Imhotep Charter has experienced just about everything, from Public League, District 12 and PIAA state tournament championships to some earlier playoff exits

The one thing the Panthers and head coach Andre Noble -- who’s been there since the beginning -- haven’t done is lose in a Public League championship game.

They’re trying to make it a perfect 6-for-6 on Thursday night, as the Panthers face off against Martin Luther King on the court of Hagan Arena at Saint Joseph’s University on Thursday night at 7 PM.

“I don’t want a loss in the championship game on his record,” said senior point guard Daron Russell, who scored 19 points during ‘Tep’s win over Constitution in the 2015 Pub championship, the program’s most recent title. “That’s the biggest reason, I want Brother Andre to be a winner, I want our coaching staff to be a winner. That’s what we’re pushing for tomorrow.”

King will be looking for its second Pub championship in as many tries under fifth-year head coach Sean Colson, who guided the Cougars to their first-ever title back in 2014.

It’s certainly not going to be easy.

The Panthers (24-2) are currently ranked No. 7 in the country by USA Today, went undefeated during the Public League regular season and beat a very good Math, Civics & Sciences squad by 32 in the semifinals.

Of course, King isn’t fazed. This is the ‘Pub’, where anything can happen.

“Imhotep is a really good team, obviously; highly nationally ranked, all that type of stuff,” Colson said, “but you know, in one game, none of that means anything -- because we’re a good team, too.”

Unlike its more perimeter-oriented opponent, King’s biggest strength lies in its frontcourt, with 6-9 junior Will McNair and 6-7 senior Elijah Kiah-El forming an imposing duo around the rim on both ends of the court. In Saturday’s semifinal win over defending league champs Del-Val Charter, the two combined for 24 points and 18 rebounds, with McNair adding in four blocks as well.


Denelle Holly (above) and King have ripped off 15 straight wins heading into Thursday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

But they’ve been getting better and better play from their backcourt, namely junior point guard Denelle Holly, who along with Kiah-El came over from George Washington in the offseason.

“He probably didn’t like all the cursing out that I was giving up [early in the season],” Colson said after the win over Del-Val. “But you know what? He’s playing a lot better and he’s the leader of our team.”

Senior guard Qadir Burgess and sophomore Ricardo Montiero III round out the starting backcourt for the Cougars. Off the bench, Colson features sophomore guards Jihad “Squid” Watson and Mikey Robinson, who chipped in 11 points in the Del-Val win.

No matter what happens Thursday, they'll play Archbishop Wood in the District 12 championship game at some point next week and will go into the PIAA 5A state tournament as one of the favorites.

Imhotep already owns a pair of victories over King this year: 60-47 in December, and 61-53 in January. The Cougars lost their first three league games overall but figured themselves out midway through the year, and enter Hagan Arena on Thursday night on a 15-game winning streak.

“They played us tough both times this year, and I actually felt when I saw that group, I said they could be a problem once they figure it out,” Noble said. “Sean coaches them up, and I’m not shocked that they’re here.”

Certainly, nobody’s surprised that Imhotep is here.

Noble’s Panthers boast a terrific Division I backcourt in Russell (Rhode Island), who’s been at the school all four years, and David Beatty (South Carolina), a Philadelphia native who spent last season at St. Benedict’s (N.J.) and his first two years at Archbishop Carroll. Off the bench comes another Division I commit, 6-5 wing Koby Thomas (Robert Morris), who’s a shock of energy to the system.

Behind them is a bevy of impressive sophomores who will be hot targets for Division I schools before long: 6-7 Donte Scott, 6-6 Jamil Riggins Jr., 6-5 Chareef Knox, 5-10 Fatayn Wesley. Throw in juniors Amear Johnson (6-5) and Bernard Lightsety (5-11) and Noble’s bunch is deep and talented.

But they all look up to Russell, one of the few players on the team that’s been there, done that.

“It’s kind of tough, now everybody’s looking to me for the answers and stuff like that,” he said. “But when I was younger, I would be looking to support them.”

“I just learned that championships aren’t won now, they’re won from the work that we put in before we got to this point,” Russell added. “The conditioning and the running, the hills, stuff like that, that got us to this point.”

Despite the national ranking and regular-season tournament champions, there’s two trophy spots the Panthers’ case is expecting: Public League and PIAA Class 4A, not to mention a District 12 4A championship, though that’s not quite on the same level as the first two.

Without them, the dream season would be left unfinished.

“Completely meaningless,” Russell said. “If we don’t get the Public League and the state championship, it would be like, not a whole failure of a year, but it wouldn’t be what we were looking for.”


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