City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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The special ones know how and when to hit reset in tense moments. They wipe everything clean and just do. That’s the mentality Justin Edwards had Saturday afternoon at Temple’s raucous Liacouras Center in the Philadelphia Public League championship against pesky Lincoln.

It was as if the Imhotep Charter 6-foot-7 elite junior wing flicked a switch in his head and decided to take over. The contradiction was the opposite happening. Edwards was driven by one thought, winning.

With the game still hanging in the balance, it’s what Edwards did—win, after a steal and a slam, followed by a driving score to give the Panthers the necessary cushion in pulling away from Lincoln for a 55-47 Public League championship victory.

Imhotep (23-4) has now won consecutive Public League championships. It’s the Panthers fifth title in the last six years. The Public League championship is also the 10th for Panthers’ legendary coach Andre Noble.

“All championships feel different, but they all feel great,” Noble said. “What made this great was moving this game from a small venue to this amazing atmosphere, because we were going to be placed in a situation where we would have had to tell player’s grandparents they wouldn’t be able to come to the game.

“I give a lot of credit to (Lincoln coach) Mel Lindsey, who stood right beside us in getting the larger arena so everyone who wanted to see this game had a chance to see it. Mel has done a great job with Lincoln. That wasn’t a great place to be a basketball player and Mel has built that program to be a formidable team in this city.

“A big credit to them and how they played this game.”

Imhotep looked like it had the game won many times.

With 7:00 left to play, the Panthers were up 37-26, and seemingly in command. The Railsplitters had shot 5-for-31 in the first half and were struggling to get any offense. But Lincoln also caused Imhotep into 21 turnovers. The Railsplitters seemed as if they were playing with 10 players on the court.

Gradually, Lincoln senior Khyrs Murray heated up to score 10 of his team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter, and in a four-minute span, what once seemed impossible looked very possible after Murray tied the game 42-42 on a pair of free throws with 2:58 to play.

“We started getting sloppy with the basketball and Lincoln can make you do that,” Noble said. “You have to make the right two-on-one plays, and we made four wrong ones in a row, which they capitalized on.”

Thankfully, Edwards was there to erase the mistakes. However, it was more than the stars that carried Imhotep. Mo Abdullah’s only points of the game came on a crucial three, which gave the Panthers a 47-42 lead, then Edwards took out his cape and seized the game for the next 90 seconds, assuring Imhotep’s victory.

Imhotep celebrates with the 2022 Public League championship trophy. (Photo: Gavin Bethell/CoBL)

“I let the game come to me, and I trust my teammates, so I didn’t have to force anything,” Edwards said. “The only thing in my head was winning the game. I had the mentality like I was playing a regular game. We have to put this game past us and focus on bigger things, like the city championship and states.”

Another major force that helped the Panthers get another title was sophomore Makye Taylor. When Imhotep would dip into a hole, it was Taylor digging them out. He matched Edwards’ team-high 16 points with the best game he’s played this year.

“Lincoln beat us earlier this season and the work factor helps,” Taylor said. “We looked at their film and noticed that they would always leave the backdoor open, and my coaches kept telling [us] to identify and react. That’s what I did.”

Lincoln (14-6) was looking for its first Public League championship since 1967, losing for the second-straight year to the Panthers.

Lincoln looked sunk 10,000 times. The Railsplitters made 8 of 47 shots through three quarters. But Lincoln kept coming at Imhotep in waves and waves. They rebounded, they clogged passing lanes, and they constantly doubled the ball from every angle they could.

A Murray steal and slam tied the score at 39-39 and Lincoln had the momentum on its side.

“It just came down to decision making,” said Lindsey, whose team looks like a handful for Roman Catholic in the District 12 6A championship. “We had the opportunity to make winning plays, and they did, and we didn’t. When it came to pivotal possessions, they were well versed.

“But the same thing that got us into the game, our energy and our fight, and our competitiveness I feel sometimes it gets in our way as far as ball movement. It’s like we start to wrestle and the basketball is 10 pounds. It was a couple of plays. It was a learning experience that I hope we can improve from.”

Barno felt that once Edwards got going, it was going to go well for the Panthers.

“This feels better than the first,” Barno said. “We want to enjoy the moment and get locked into the city and the states.”

Noble calmly accepted his 10th Public League championship with typical graciousness. MCS won two years ago, which interrupted the Panthers from winning six straight.

“We know Justin is fine with these moments and we expect him to be big-time in those moments and he did,” Noble said. “We’ve been in tough games against tough opponents, so we focused on being us.”

Us is the two-time Philadelphia Public League champs.

By Quarter
Lincoln:     8   |   4   |  14  |  21  ||  47
Imhotep:   11  |  13  |  11  |  20  ||  55

Scoring
Lincoln: Khrys Murray 14, Naseem Wright 11, Tamir Powell 8, Aymere Thomas 6, Rashan Locke-Hicks 5, Rodney Shelton 3

Imhotep Charter: Justin Edwards 16, Makye Taylor 16, Rahmir Barno 12, Ronny Raphael 4, Mo Abdullah 3, Ahmad Nowell 2, Devin Booker 2

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.