City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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The Imhotep girls basketball program was knocked off its perch atop the Philadelphia Public League last season. Audenried won its first Public League title, dethroning the back-to-back league champion Panthers along the way. 

Now, eighth-year coach David Hargrove looks to guide his team back to the top.

“We’ve been playing Audenried for years. To see the growth of their program, I’m actually very happy about that,” Hargrove said. “It’s going to make us be better. We gotta elevate our game this year. We have to respond to losing to them in the championship last year. It’s a group that comes back with an added edge, a little chip on our shoulder.”

The Panthers have dominated the Public League for the past decade, winning a total of seven titles in the last 10 seasons, including four under Hargrove’s watch. Prior to last season, Mastery North (2017, 2020) was the only program to interrupt that run.

However, Imhotep was young last season with first team All-PPL selection Samya Stevens the lone senior in the main rotation. Hargrove’s squad still finished 16-12 (7-1 PPL), won the program’s first District 12-3A title since 2016 and advanced to the second round of states, where the Panthers fell to eventual champion Dunmoore.

There’s a lot more experience back in 2023-24 as the Panthers try to take down the Rockets and the rest of the Public League before an even deeper PIAA run.

“We’ve been through the experience of some ups and downs of losing, of being close, so we gotta have a team this year that’s really hungry and they do see it,” Hargrove said. “They actually can have a real vision like, ‘We’ve been close. Now we gotta get done.’”

Junior 6-foot-1 forward Anise Geiger (7.3 ppg, 6.1 rpg), a second team All-PPL selection last season and senior 5-foot-3 guard Asia Taylor are two of the returners Hargrove is looking for to pave the bath for a banner season. 

Those two and junior 5-7 guard Sabria Mann began playing together in AAU with the Hunting Park Warriors back when Mann and Geiger were in eighth grade. Their chemistry together and with the rest of their teammates could elevate the Panthers this season.

“We’ve been playing together for so long, we just have that type of bond together so we can feed off each other,” Geiger said.

Hargrove likes his teams to go about 10 deep and hopes that can be the case again this season. Senior 6-foot forward Aubrey Wroten and senior guard Troi Ebo are two more familiar faces who return to the experienced core. Imhotep will also have a solid group of freshmen and sophomores in the mix for minutes to help make up the rest of the rotation.

Geiger said she’s added to her arsenal down low this offseason, and she should be one of the top players in the league once again — and shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to some of the top forwards in the area as well. But the Panthers are comfortable getting offensive contributions from anybody.

“Our strength is us working together and sharing the ball,” Taylor said. “I don’t think we have a big scorer but when we work together and we share the ball, you see everybody shine. That’s all it is. We shine together. That’s our motto.”

With a pair of veteran 6-footers and some decent height throughout the lineup, the Panthers also have size few teams can match up against.

“The size has to turn into production,” Hargrove said. “Meaning are we being a presence defensively? Are we finishing possession rebounding wise? Then obviously on the offensive end, can we get some points in the paint? We’re trying to be creative in how we do that. Obviously sharing the ball is a big part of that. But then them making strong post-ups and confident moves in the paint and making free throws. If the size can be productive, I think that can separate us from a lot of teams.”

Imhotep followed up its PPL title with a run to the state semifinals in 2022, and Hargrove believes he has a team that could make a similar type of run this season.

While the Panthers couldn’t capture a third straight Public League crown last season, the District 12 title win over West Catholic let them get a championship experience they’d like to replicate — more than once — this season.

“That was pretty exciting for everybody, people who hadn’t experienced it,” Taylor said. “Even me, I didn’t experience a championship, that was my first championship last year. I think it was pretty exciting to see everybody win and everybody smiling.”

“I feel like everybody got a taste of what we can do, so it made us want to work harder and be better for everybody else,” Geiger added.