City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
—

WILMINGTON, Del. —There is a reason why Imhotep Charter coach Andre Noble is one of the best high school basketball coaches in Pennsylvania. There is a reason why his teams routinely play hard and are successful. And the reason is simple: Noble consistently holds his teams accountable to a higher standard. It’s a scale that’s measured every practice and in every drill.

And in every game, even in victory.

The Panthers moved to 6-1 overall this season, but you wouldn’t have known it by the way they left their dressing room after what looked to the naked eye like an impressive 64-58 victory over Neumann-Goretti Thursday night at Jeremy Treatman’s Wilmington Play-by-Play Classic II at the Chase Fieldhouse.

Juniors Rahmir Barno and Justin Edwards led the way for Imhotep, scoring a game-high 16 points each, with explosive sophomore Ahmed Nowell chipping in with 13. Neumann-Goretti (3-1) was led by smooth sophomore guard Robert Wright III’s team-high 15 points, supported by Masud Steward’s 12 and Khaafi Meyers’ 11.

The game had multiple ebbs and flows, though in the end, Imhotep shut down the Saints in the last 1:47 without a point.

Still, you couldn’t tell who won or who lost by the look on Noble’s face afterwards.

“I’m being honest, I don’t think we played well at all tonight,” Noble said bluntly. “I don’t think we competed hard. I thought Neumann outplayed us, I thought that they played harder than us. We did not compete the way I expected us to compete. I’m unhappy with what I just watched out there.

“That’s not Imhotep basketball!

“Credit to Neumann. They made a lot of shots and bothered us. Our kids made plays down the stretch, but there were too many times the ball was loose, and we were last to get to it. Some charges were clearly there, and we didn’t man up and take it in the chest. It’s all the stuff that we’re not about. We’ve got to get back to work and get better.

“If we’re not playing better than that, the next time you see us, we’re going to have seven or eight losses on our record in late January. You play like that, you get beat by 50 by IMG. You play like that, Paul VI is going to beat you by 30. If we play like that, we’re going to have a lot of losses on our record.”

Rahmir Barno (above) scored eight of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to help Imhotep win its sixth game of the season. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Barno, Edwards and Nowell fell in line with their coach.

“I think I have to do better protecting the ball, that played a part in calling this ‘a bad team win,’” said Barno, who played a deciding role as he did earlier this week in the Panthers’ victory over Roman Catholic, scoring 8 of 16 in the fourth quarter against Neumann-Goretti. “We didn’t play the right way. We didn’t compete hard enough. We made too many mental breakdowns. The standard is high here.

“Coach Noble wasn’t happy. I see where he is coming from. Coach Noble is demanding and there is a reason why we’re good. I don’t blame Coach Noble for being angry. I get where the coaches are coming from. They want to play at the higher standard that they set.”

Edwards just nodded. He dove for a loose ball with 2:15 to play in keeping an Imhotep possession alive and the Panthers clinging to a 62-58 lead.

“We didn’t execute the first half, and this was a statement game, and I don’t blame Coach Noble for being mad at us,” Edwards said. “This is the worst since we lost to Reading. We can’t play like this. We can’t have no more games like that.

“I had to rebound more for this game, and if I really didn’t have an offensive game. I scored my points off of rebounds. What we need to do is go back to the gym and go back to work. The standard is high.”

Nowell continues to show glimmers of being special. He’s powerful, tough to defend one-on-one, and explodes when he drives to the basket.

Nowell, despite how well he played in stretches, knew it wasn’t up to the Imhotep level.

“We didn’t execute the way we could have,” Nowell said. “We need to be tougher. We need to get to more 50-50 balls. We needed to go after it a whole game, not just in the fourth quarter.”

Robert Wright III (above) and Neumann-Goretti led by three points in the fourth quarter but couldn't hold on. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Neumann-Goretti led once in the fourth quarter, 53-50, on a Steward 3-pointer with 6:04 left to play. The shot struck a nerve with the Panthers, who went on a 10-3 rush to seize control of the game.

Wright was exceptional throughout most of the game, and the Saints looked like possibly the best team in the Catholic League.

“We could have shared the ball more and rebounded better,” Wright said. “I could have moved the ball better, instead of driving. I think I learned to trust my teammates more and I could have looked more in the corner for our shooters.”

Saints’ coach Carl Arrigale left sweaty and disappointed. His team was right there on the brink and failed to close.

Imhotep, of course, had a lot to do with that.

“We expect to win, we don’t show up to hang in and we think we’re good enough to win,” Arrigale said. “The turnovers [15 Neumann-Goretti turnovers to Imhotep’s 12] were the thing, and we’re young in some areas. Wright is a very good player, but he’s a young player who made some mistakes down the stretch. We’ll be okay at the end of the day.

“I felt we let one slip away.”

By Quarter

Imhotep Charter:    21  |   9   |  17  |  23  ||  64

Neumann-Goretti:  14  |  18  |  16  |  10  ||  58

Scoring

Imhotep Charter: Rahmir Barno 16, Justin Edwards 16, Ahmad Nowell 13, Mo Abdullah 6, Makye Taylor 5, Isaiah Kennedy 3, Ronny Raphael 3, Chad Anglin 2

Neumann-Goretti: Robert Wright III 15, Masud Steward 12, Khaafi Meyers 11, Sultan Adewale 9, Aamir Hurst 5, Shawn Battle 3, Bruce Smith 3

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.