City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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In potentially its final season of existence, the Math, Civics & Sciences boys basketball team will finally get its shot at Imhotep in a title game.

The Mighty Elephants have seen the Panthers in the semifinal round five times since 2009, including three times in four years in 2017, 2019 and 2020. The two ‘A’ division foes have never faced off with the league championship at stake.

That will change on Saturday at 2 p.m. as MCS and Imhotep square off in the Public League boys basketball championship, following the girls game at noon.

“It’s definitely pretty cool,” said MCS sixth-year head coach Lonnie Diggs, who’s been with the program since 2005. “Over the years they’ve beaten us several times in the semifinals, so it’s a good chance to get them in the final and see what we can do."

The Mighty Elephants have just two victories over Imhotep in 25 tries since 2007, according to MaxPreps — a regular season win in 2012-13 and semifinal victory in 2020 that was followed by the first Public League championship in program history.

Imhotep ended MCS playoff runs in the semifinals in 2009, 2010, 2017 and 2019 before Nisine ‘Wooga’ Poplar helped the Mighty Elephants solve the Panthers in 2020, which was the most recent postseason meeting between the two teams.

MCS’ 2020 victory is the only thing breaking up Imhotep’s run of six titles in the last seven years as the Panthers won their third straight title over West Philadelphia last season.

“They always compete,” Imhotep head coach Andre Noble said of the Mighty Elephants. “MCS is never intimidated by us no matter who we have. They’re gonna come out ready to rumble on Saturday, and we know that.”

Diggs doesn’t have a player like Poplar, who is currently starring at Miami (Fla.). There are however some similarities between his 2020 group and this year’s squad, which is the only other MCS team to reach the Public League title game.

Senior Sair Alsbrook and sophomore Milak Myatt lead the team in scoring, but there are a handful of guys behind them who can go off in any game, including seniors Azeem Murphy, Kevin Carter, Maki HIll and Aiden Brown and junior Alantay Dawson.

“Even though we had Wooga on that team who was of course our best player, our best talent, we had balance that year,” Diggs said. “We had three or four other guys who could pass, score and rebound. We have similar attributes on this team. There’s not one guy as good as Wooga, but we have a lot of depth and that’s one of our advantages.”

Imhotep graduated a pair of 1,000-point scorers in Justin Edwards (Kentucky) and Rahmir Barno (Florida Gulf Coast) from last season’s squad.

This year, the Panthers are led by senior guard Ahmad Nowell, a UConn commit who is having arguably the best season in the area. Senior forward Makye Taylor (Albany) returned from a preseason injury during the team’s 55-32 win over MCS on Feb. 1. Senior forward Jeremiah White adds energy and rebounding.

Noble praised how some of the other players like sophomore guard R.J. Smith and sophomore forward Zaahir Muhammad-Gray, who both played reserve roles as freshmen, have stepped up this season, along with freshman wing/forward Zion Green. Junior guard Carnell Henderson is in the midst of a breakout season.

“This team is very different from the previous group,” Noble said. “Obviously, no Justin, no Rahmir. That senior class was a big class. We lost a lot and I’m really proud of our young kids. A lot of teams, their response has been to double Ahmad or make it really hard for Ahmad and our other players, I think they’ve proven throughout the season that they can make enough plays to win basketball games.”

Seniors Taylor, White and Devin Carter have the chance to make some history with the Panthers. They'd become the only players in a long line of great ones to end their careers with four Public League championships with a win on Saturday.

“(White and Taylor) have done whatever we’ve asked, been a big part of the toughness of our teams,” Noble said. “We’re blessed to have kids like that who just want to win. They’ve never been guys that everyone’s writing about them everyday, but they’ve just been so committed to what we do.”

MCS’ senior group and the rest of the squad is trying to leave its mark as well.

After MCS announced in October that it was closing following the 2023-24 school year, Diggs wasn’t sure what he would get from his team. They decided to ride things out and because of that have added onto the program’s history.

Players like Poplar, who is Myatt’s cousin, and Samir Doughty have called to congratulate Diggs throughout the week. Some of the members of the 2020 team like Tvon Jones, who is cousins with Carter, and Marcus Middleton have talked to the team throughout the season about the history of the program and the legacy they have the chance to leave.

“There were a lot of guys who could have transferred or just moved on even mentally, just not locking into the season, just looking forward to what they’re going to do next year,” Diggs said. “With the situation the way it is, these guys stuck together, they locked in and they wanted to make something successful out of this year given the future uncertainty.”