City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito )
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There was a business sense in their eyes during layup drills and pre-game warmups. That translated quickly to the court. Imhotep Charter star Justin Edwards scored his 21st point with 3:14 left in the first half Friday night against Radnor in the PIAA Class 5A second round state playoff game at Coatesville.

Radnor was still stuck on 16 at the time.

That pretty much said all you needed to know.

Imhotep Charter (25-4) hardly gave Radnor any room to breathe, stomping on the Raptors early towards a 62-39 playoff victory to advance to the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs against Marple Newtown, 56-48 winners over Mastery Charter North, on Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.

Radnor (22-4) saw a very successful season come to an end.

This is getting closer to what legendary Imhotep coach Andre Noble envisioned at the start of the season.

“We’re playing very well right now,” Noble said. “I thought that first half we were lights out shooting the ball, and with our ball movement. When we move and share the ball, we’re an elite team. We have guys who can go through and that goes to what we did in the first half.

“Radnor is a good basketball team. (Radnor coach) Jamie (Chadwin) does a good job over there. We had to jump on them, because you saw what happened in the second half. Jamie has done a great job with them. I was glad we were able to get up and hit some shots early. They play together, they play hard.

“Right now, I love our pressure. Our guys are doing it well. When we move it and share it. We’re tough. I’m happy with our performance. Now, it’s all about Marple Newtown. I don’t [want] my team to talk about Hershey or talk about Chester. Our focus is on Marple Newtown.”

Yamir Satterfield (left) and Justin Edwards scored double digits to help Imhotep to an emphatic win on Friday night. (Photo: Joseph Santoliquito/CoBL)

Imhotep got off to a 7-0 start, led 17-3 with 3:25 left in the first quarter and bolted form there. The second half was played under the 30-point mercy rule.

“I don’t smile,” Edwards said. “There’s no smiling until we win in Hershey. We’re going into every like it’s our last game, like we can lose, so we’re coming out with high intensity. We’re looking to win a state championship and looking at each game like it could be our last.

“We can play better. When we’re moving the ball, we can [be] really good.”

Yahmir Satterfield chipped in with 10 for the Panthers, who forced 10 turnovers in the first half.

“I feel like our team can actually do better,” Satterfield said. “We are a power team when we do move the ball. This game was keeping our heads and showing everyone that we’re coming after the state title. We think we’re a team with things to prove.”

As the Radnor team filed out of its dressing room behind Chadwin, there walked a row of blood shot eyes from a highly successful season in which the Raptors won 23 games, which had not been done by a Radnor boys’ basketball team since the early-1960s.

It’s a team that returns a lot of talent in juniors Jackson Hicke, Charlie Thornton, Cooper Mueller and Danny Rosenblum. It’s a team that could threaten and should threaten perennial Central League powerhouse Lower Merion next season.

But it was something the Raptors did not want to hear as the filed out the gym.

“They are an exceptional team with exceptional players, and Coach Noble does a fine job every year,” Chadwin said. “They’re a better team. That’s why you play in tournaments, to play against teams like that. Look, I think the biggest weapon they have is they take you out of the stuff you do with their length, because of the size and they’re disciplined in it, too.

“What we knew going into the season is these guys all love playing with one another, and that was solidified. That won’t change for a long, long time. That joy that they have makes practices so awesome and why we love showing each day. It’s because of that.”

Thornton showed a side of himself against Imhotep that he should bottle and send to college coaches. While Radnor struggles during long lengths of time, he and Hicke, who led the Raptors with 18, were among the bright spots.

“I do hope October starts tomorrow and next year is exciting, and I love playing with these guys,” Thornton said. “I’ll miss the seniors. I need to bottle stuff like that and bring it into the summer and the AAU circuit. It’s nice my coaches trust me and my teammates trust me.

“We didn’t come out the way we wanted.”

By Quarter
Radnor:                 9 | 13 | 7 | 10 || 39
Imhotep Charter: 29 | 19 | 10 | 4 || 62

Scoring

Radnor: Jackson Hicke 18, Charlie Thornton 11, Mason Hill 6, Cooper Mueller 2, Danny Rosenblum 1, Pierce Justice 1

Imhotep Charter: Justin Edwards 21, Yahmir Satterfield 10, Mo Abdullah 7, Ahmad Nowell 6,  Makye Taylor 4, Ronny Raphael 4, Chad Anglin 4, Devin Booker 2, Amaury Hunter 2, Jay Chiles 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.