City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For one last time, Math, Civics & Sciences will play for a Public League championship.

The charter school on North Broad Street is slated to close at the end of the year; the Mighty Elephants are playing this season under the assumption it will be their final one, while still holding out hope that things change in the next few months. 

If this is indeed the last time MCS exists, it’s got a chance to go out on top.

Behind a big-time performance from senior Sair Alsbrooks, the Mighty Elephants took care of business against rival Constitution High School, a 55-47 win at Temple’s Liacouras Center on Tuesday afternoon putting them back into Saturday’s Public League championship.

Alsbrooks, a senior in his first and only season with MCS, had one of his strongest games of the year against Constitution with a 23-point, 12-rebound double-double. The 6-foot-4 wing forward, who transferred in from Frankford this offseason, added three blocks, three steals and two assists in an all-around showing.

There’s no doubt he and all of his teammates are motivated by what’s going on back at their school, whose founder announced in the fall it will be closing after 25 years of operation.

“It’s the last year of MCS, just trying to (make) a statement for the last year, before we close,” Alsbrook said. “It’s like a sense of urgency, because it’s everybody’s last year, even the underclassmen.”

To end its Public League run with a trophy, MCS will need to take down three-time defending champ Imhotep, which dispatched Lincoln High 75-57 in the second semifinal. The Panthers beat the Mighty Elephants 55-34 on Feb. 1 in their only regular-season matchup.

It’s only the second Public League championship game in program history for Math, Civics & Sciences, which has routinely made runs deep into the Pub tournament but has a long list of semifinal and quarterfinal losses. The program’s previous title game appearance, in 2020, ended with a win over Simon Gratz powered by current University of Miami standout Nisine Poplar.

“It means a lot,” head coach Lonnie Diggs said. “Just for all the guys that came through the program through the past almost 20 years [...] we want to go out on top.”

MCS led almost the entire way through, though it was close early on — the edge was three after one quarter and five at halftime. The Mighty Elephants put their foot down out of the half, Alsbrooks hitting a 3-pointer and a couple buckets around the rim as part of an 11-1 run to begin the third quarter. 

Going up against a Constitution side that doesn’t really start a true forward, Alsbrooks grabbed five offensive rebounds and was a deterrent for many a driving Generals guard. Constitution was forced to settle for more 3-pointers than head coach Rob Moore liked. 

“Alsbrooks was the best player on the court tonight,” Moore said. “It is what it is, he did everything — he rebounded, he made shots, he was in the post. I felt like every time we were making a run, he made a play. Hats’ off to him, he had a great game.”

Moore said what might be the last meeting between his Generals and the Mighty Elephants was a “bittersweet” game. The two have been division rivals in the Public League for more than a decade, but also met regularly in the state playoffs before the PIAA went to a six-classification layout in 2016-17. 

Constitution will be in the PIAA Class 2A bracket this year, MCS in 3A for its final state championship run. First for the Mighty Elephants will be a District 12 championship game against Devon Prep, March 1 at West Philadelphia High School. 

“There’s a ton of competitive juices flowing between the two teams, but I’m happy for them,” Moore said. “I’m like, hopefully they can go on and finish out their season and play well against Imhotep, I know that’s always going to be a tough task.”

By Quarter

Con:   10  |  11  |   9   |  17  ||  47

MCS: 13  |  13  |  15  |  14  ||  55

Shooting

Con: 18-53 FG (7-23 3PT), 4-8 FT

MCS: 22-49 FG (5-11 3PT), 6-10 FT

Scoring

Con: Perry Fields 19, Amir Speights 11, Kyree Latimer 7, Naamir Flowers 2, Kory Jones 2

MCS: Sair Alsbrooks 23, Azeem Murphy 9, Alantay Dawson 7, Milak Myatt 6, Maki Hill 5, Rahkiy Mason 2, Zion Robinson 1

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Imhotep survives rough outing to get back to title game

Andre Noble wasn’t exactly in a joyous mood after his Imhotep squad beat Lincoln 75-57 to make it to its fourth straight Public League championship game. 

“I was not thrilled, no,” the longtime Panthers coach said. “We left a lot of points out there, shot poorly from the free-throw line, missed a bunch of layups. I don’t think we played great offensively or defensively today.”

But that’s the reality of the program Noble has put together: even on an off day, they’re still a force to be reckoned with. Even on a day when they go 13-of-24 from the foul line, when star guard Ahmad Nowell goes an uncharacteristic 6-of-19 from the floor, when the rest of the team goes 0-for-11 from deep, when they give up a few too many Railsplitter offensive rebounds.

Noble’s had the most talented team in the league, hands down, the last few years. There’s a substantial gap between his program — which hosts no fewer than seven or eight Division I prospects, including committed seniors Nowell (Uconn) and Makye Taylor (Albany) — and anybody else in the Pub. 

He knows that this time of year keeping focused a team which has already dispatched all league opponents by double digits can be the biggest challenge.

“That’s definitely always one of the things,” he said, “but we talk to them about (how) this league is tricky. I’ve seen it on the positive and negative side; we’ve won games when we weren’t the best team in our league, and we’ve lost a couple in playoffs that we were supposed to win over the course of our years.” 

Along with Nowell’s 20, Imhotep got 12 points from freshman forward Zion Green, 11 from sophomore Latief Lorenzano-White and a 10-point, 12-rebound effort from senior Jeremiah White.

Senior guard Aldonis Martin led Lincoln with 16 points and eight rebounds.

Even without its most efficient effort, Imhotep was fairly comfortably in control the whole way through. The Panthers led 18-11 after one and 32-19 at halftime, the advantage growing to 21 entering the fourth. Noble emptied his bench with the gap more than 20 in the last few minutes, but a few quick buckets by Lincoln got it to 15 and forced Noble to bring his starters back in for the final 90 seconds. 

As the Panthers go for their fourth straight Public League title, which would make them the first since West Philly’s five-peat (1974-78) to win more than three in a row, they’ll be going up against Math, Civics & Sciences in the championship. Noble wasn’t worried about the Mighty Elephants’ added motivation adding anything extra to the matchup.

“If you’re guarding and playing the way you’re supposed to every possession, those things are what’s important,” he said. “What other people are going through, how much motivation they have, it can be whatever the circumstances, they shouldn’t have any more motivation than we have.”

By Quarter

Imhotep:  18  |  14  |  24  |  19  ||  75

Lincoln:    11  |   8   |  16  |  22  ||  57

Shooting

Imhotep: 30-64 FG (2-13 3PT), 13-24 FT

Lincoln: 21-58 FG (3-12 3PT), 12-16 FT

Scoring

Imhotep: Ahmad Nowell 20, Zion Green 12, Latief Lorenzano-White 11, Jeremiah White 10, Zaahir-Muhammad-Gray 8, Carnell Henderson 5, RJ Smith 4, Makye Taylor 3, Kody Colson 2

Lincoln: Aldonis Martin 16, Samair Peterson 13, Malachi Montgomery 11, Mason Smith 10, Dajon Smith 3, Javere Russell 2, Zaheem Norman-Bryant 2

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Public League Boys

Semifinals (Tue., Feb. 20 at Liacouras Center)
3) Math, Civics & Sciences 55, 2) Constitution 47
1) Imhotep Charter 75, 4) Lincoln 57

Championship (Sat., Feb. 24, 3 p.m. at Liacouras Center)
1) Imhotep Charter vs. 3) Math, Civics & Sciences