City of Basketball Love

Corky Blake (@corkyblake)
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The Imhotep Charter girls basketball team has been knocking on the door of the PIAA state semifinals for the last few years.

On Tuesday night, in the first game of the doubleheader at Liberty, the Panthers emphatically knocked that door down.

Seniors Taniyah Finney and Janai Smith scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, and junior Samya Stevens added 10 as Imhotep defeated District 2 champion Riverside and its do-everything Drexel recruit Kylie Lavelle, 46-40, in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals. 

The victory sets up a rematch of the District 12 championship game against Neumann Goretti, which ousted Conwell-Egan, the third-place team from District 12, 72-47.

Neumann topped Imhotep 54-45 in the district title game on March 3, but the Panthers are taking a “why not us?” approach.

“(Advancing to the semifinals) has been a conversation we’ve had,” said sixth-year Imhotep coach David Hargrove said. “We’re happy we won because it puts us one step closer to becoming the first (Philadelphia) public school to win a girls state championship. I’m already focused on our next game.”

How Tuesday’s quarterfinal was going to play out was established early. Could the Panthers’ team balance with the all-stater Jones and savvy point guard Finney overcome Lavelle, a 6-2 point guard who was averaging 25 points and 10 rebounds a game?

“She was one of the most talented kids we’ve seen,” Hargrove said. “She could score, she could set up her teammates and she rebounded. She played all levels. Once she caught the ball we wanted to make it difficult for her to do anything.”

Imhotep surged to a 21-12 first-quarter lead on eight points from Finney, seven from Smith and six from Stevens.

But 24 seconds into the second quarter, Smith let out a yell and hobbled toward the mat along a wall behind the basket. The officials immediately stopped the action, and Smith was gingerly helped off the court.

“I rolled my ankle; I knew I’d be back in,” Smith said. “I’ve done it before.”

With trainers attending to Smith and making sure she was healthy enough to return to action, it was left up to the other Panthers to protect their advantage.

By the time Smith returned with 48 seconds left in the half, Imhotep still held a 27-20 lead on Finney’s third 3 of the half and an unlikely 3 from sophomore reserve guard Troi Ebo.

The Panthers were 5-for-7 from beyond the arc in the first half.

“I usually don’t take those shots, but they were sagging back in their zone,” Finney said. 

“When Janai hurt her ankle we had a good rhythm going,” Hargrove said. “We just had to be more patient. We normally don’t shoot a lot of 3s, but when we take them we want the girls to be ready to shoot them.”

“No. 5 (Ebo) doesn’t get to play a whole lot. She came in when Janai was hurt and hit that big 3,” Finney said.

Lavelle converted a pair of free throws to draw Riverside (23-5) to 36-34 with 4:20 left in the game. Smith, showing no signs of an ailing ankle, ripped down an offensive rebound and quickly went back up for a basket and 38-34 edge.

The Panthers then made just enough free throws down the stretch and prevented Lavelle from finding room to operate and orchestrate a final comeback.

“This means a lot to us because we’ve always been like the underdog,” said Finney, sporting sunglasses as she emerged from the locker room. “Every win gives us more recognition.”

The Panthers had their string of nine straight state appearances snapped last year when only district champions advanced to the playoffs because of COVID restrictions. 

In 2020, Imhotep reached the quarterfinals before the season was halted by the onset of COVID. In 2019, the Panthers lost in the quarters to Trinity – a team they defeated last week in the second round – and in 2018 they fell to Dunmore in the quarterfinals.

Now, it’s uncharted territory but a familiar foe for Imhotep on Friday.

By Quarter
Imhotep:   21  |   6   |   5   |  14  ||  46
Riverside: 12  |   8   |   6   |  14  ||  40

Scoring
Imhotep Charter: Taniyah Finney 15, Janai Smith 14, Samya Stevens 10, Mikala Rambert-Carter 4, Troi Ebo 3

Riverside: Kyle Lavelle 23, Kate Slaboda 11, Lillie Pon 6

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West Philadelphia’s run ends in OT

Other than when West Philadelphia opened the game with a 3-pointer, the Speedboys fought an uphill battle into the fourth quarter against Dallas in the PIAA Class 4A quarterfinals Tuesday night at Liberty High School in Bethlehem.

Finally, when Deyishon Miller raced the length of the court to deposit a layup, West Philadelphia was back in front, 55-54, with 6:48 left in the game.

Four times the Speedboys boosted their advantage to four points as the clock ticked away. Even when Dallas senior guard Nick Nocito tied the game 65-65 on a 3-pointer with 1:19 remaining, the Mountaineers were content to sit back in their zone and dare West Philadelphia to play for the last shot.

The shot never came.

The game went to overtime.

Dallas scored the first six points of the four-minute extra session and ended the Speedboys’ magical season with a 79-68 victory.

The win advances the District 2 champion to Friday’s state semifinals against District 12 champion Neumann Goretti, a 53-42 winner over District 11 champ Bethlehem Catholic.

“We ran out of gas,” said West Philadelphia coach Adrian Burke, trying to make sense of the frenetic 36 minutes of basketball played in a gym that’s known as the mecca of Pennsylvania high school wrestling, but also has hosted the likes of basketball icons Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant. “I thought when we went ahead we’d really close it out, but the team we played was relentless.”

The Speedboys (21-6) will return a trio of junior guards, but unfortunately it was the final game for Miller, who scored 28 points – including his 1,000th-career point early in the second half – and forwards Nasir Davis and Jihad Pickens-Brown.

The Mountaineers don’t have a player taller than 6-2, but their speed and cohesive play more than compensated for their lack of height. They surged to a 23-11 lead that was cut by two when Miller beat the first-quarter buzzer with an emphatic dunk.

“We had to play small ball because our big guys couldn’t match their speed,” Burke said. “They were really good at handling our press. Usually, teams can’t break our press like they did. We saw them on tape and the tape didn’t do them justice. They were way better, and No. 2 was awesome for them all night.”

No. 2 is 5-11 senior guard Nocito, who finished with 23 points and was 10-for-11 from the foul line. Nocito is a career 1,000-point scorer as is his senior backcourt mate Austin Finarelli (13 points). 

After its shaky opening quarter, West Philadelphia regrouped to outscored Dallas 9-2 to open the second stanza with junior guard Nasir Washington scoring five of his 24 points. The Mountaineers built their lead back to 36-24 before the Speedboys closed to 37-32 at intermission on consecutive 3s from Washington.

“Nasir was knocking down shots tonight,” said Burke of Washington’s five 3-pointers.

Miller baptized the second half with a dunk and a running jumper that put him over the 1,000-point plateau. Burke immediately called timeout so the team could present its senior with a commemorative basketball.

Once the game resumed, Dallas spent the rest of the quarter maintaining a 5-to-8 point lead only to have Washington again conclude the period with two straight 3s to cut the deficit to 54-51.

After Miller’s layup put the Speedboys ahead 55-54, they enjoyed leads of 58-54 on another Washington 3, 60-56 on Miller’s jumper, 62-58 on a steal and layup from Pickens-Brown, and 64-60 with 2:32 to go on Pickens-Brown’s layup off a Miller assist.

West Philadelphia seemed to be in ideal position to advance to the semifinals when its defense caused a loose ball. However, a Dallas player managed to emerge with the ball and throw a crosscourt pass to Nocito, who knocked down the tying 3 with 1:19 left.

Dallas called off its press and settled back into a zone. Miller dribbled down the clock before the Speedboys went into action with less than 15 seconds showing. 

However, they never got the proper spacing, the Mountaineers deflected a pass downcourt where Finarelli launched an open 3 from the right wing. It rattled in and out of the basket, and the game went to overtime.

Burke had no qualms how the final sequence played out. He said a timeout was unnecessary.

“In that instance, our key guy had the ball and I felt comfortable with the decision he would make,” Burke said. “I was playing for the final shot. Either we make it and we go home a winner or at worst we go to overtime.”

Overtime was not kind to the Speedboys.

Sophomore 6-foot forward Michael Cumbo (20 points) scored on a breakaway to open the overtime for Dallas. Angelo Zarola deposited two free throws for his only points of the game, and Nocito snuck behind West Philadelphia’s defense for the easiest layup of his career for a 71-65 lead.

The Mountaineers outscored the Speedboys 8-3 the rest of the way, including the final six points in the closing 32 seconds.

“Our kids fought and there’s nothing to be upset about,” Burke said. “They played as hard as they could. It was a good experience. We’ve got work to do, but we’ll be back.”

By Quarter
W. Philly:  13  |  19  |  19  |  14  |   3   ||  68
Dallas:      23  |  14  |  17  |  11  |  14  ||  79

Scoring
West Philadelphia: Deyishon Miller 28, Nasir Washington 24, Elijah Hester 6, Jihad Pickens-Brown 5, Nasir Davis 2, Jaden Williams 2, Jabrill Jackson 1. 

Dallas: Nick Nocito 23, Michael Cumbo 20,  Austin Finarelli 13, Jackson Wydra 4 2-2 10, Michael Bufalino 8, Zach Paczewski 3, Angelo Zarola 2

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