City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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HERSHEY — Ahmad Nowell made the time so they could breathe his air, enter his orbit and think as he does. He taught a young, inexperienced team his language of winning, and what it took to get there. There were moments of frustration, as there always is in a learning process, but they followed.

Nowell, the powerful 6-foot-1, 180-pound Imhotep Charter senior point guard, made sure they followed. They had no choice, if they wanted to threepeat as PIAA Class 5A state champions.

On Friday, the captain did it again, pulling Imhotep to victory with another amazing fourth quarter to lead the Panthers to a 59-48 victory over District 7 runner-up Franklin Regional in the PIAA Class 5A state championship at Hershey’s Giant Center.  

The UConn-bound Nowell led all scorers with 20 points, 10 coming in the fourth quarter, when he also picked up a crucial steal off an Imhotep miss with 4:41 to play that he converted into a layup and a 46-40 Imhotep lead.

It’s not the first time Nowell has swung to the rescue in the fourth quarter. He claims it is not by design, though it looks like it. Against Archbishop Wood early in the season, the Panthers were struggling to create some distance, it was Nowell that saved them in the last quarter. In the state semis on Monday, and Imhotep battling Archbishop Ryan, it was Nowell who scored the Panthers’ last seven points for Imhotep to advance to the state finals.

Against Franklin Regional, he scored 10 of Imhotep’s 18 fourth-quarter points, including the critical steal-and-score when Franklin got within four.

The Imhotep boys basketball team poses together after winning the PIAA Class 5A championship Friday at the Giant Center. (Photo: Andrew Robinson/CoBL)

“I know it might look like that’s the plan in the fourth quarter, but I just have a saying, ‘Call 0 for the win,’ and when the fourth quarter begins, it’s in my mind that triggers it to get it done,” said Nowell, who will wear his high school number ‘0’ at UConn. “I knew my young guys fought for a long time. I had to put the game away. I tell myself ‘We have to win and it’s time to get it done.’ This feels amazing to show how good of a leader I can be. That’s important to me. This season stamped that, being the main guy.”

The state championship was legendary Panthers’ coach Andre Noble’s 10th. Imhotep (29-3) is undefeated in state championships, and currently has the longest streak of state championship runs on the boys’ side (Wood will be going for its fourth-straight state title on the girls’ side on Saturday).

The Panthers are 10-0 in state title games, winning three 2A titles (2009, 2011, 2012 under the Class 4A system), one 3A championship (2013 under 4A system), three 4A crowns (2017, 2018 and 2019 under the 6A system) and now three 5A titles (2022, 2023 and 2024).

This one, as Noble had rightfully warned, would not come easy.

Every time it seemed Imhotep would run away, Franklin Regional scratched back. Imhotep bolted out to an 8-0 lead, and then it got a little interesting. With 5:31 left in the half, Franklin Regional’s Cooper Rankin nailed a jumper that knotted the score at 19-19. Imhotep’s largest lead was 39-24 with 2:46 left in the third quarter.

But after a Rankin layup with 5:15 to play, Franklin Regional (27-4) had whittled that edge to 44-40.

That’s when Nowell arrived.

“We watched a lot of film on them, and we didn’t overpressure them, because they handle it well,” Noble said. “They moved the ball well and we saw them play well against teams like us. We knew they were a good basketball team. Ahmad Nowell has been special his whole time here. He is one of the best players to ever wear an Imhotep jersey.

“He could have played a more dominant role with this team, but he played the role we needed him to play. Ahmad Nowell is a winner, and whatever we needed him to do, he did. I was confident in our guys winning. I knew Franklin Regional was a good team, but I also knew they did not have number ‘0’ and we did.”  

This was the second time around in the state finals for Franklin Regional coach Jesse Reed. His first came as the star guard for Greensburg Central Catholic in 2011, when the Centurions were blown out in the Class 2A state finals, 67-34, at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center by Imhotep.

This time, it was markedly different.

“Our guys settled in and took the fight to them,” Reed said. “I’m so proud of the way we battled against a team where you are outmatched in size, outmatched in athleticism, but we weren’t outmatched in heart. That’s all I can ever ask for. Towards the end there, they executed a little better than we did.

“They hit some big shots, and a couple of extra offensive rebounds (17 to 4 offensive rebound margin for Imhotep) kind of hurt us. We gave up 12 in the first half and five in the second half. We gave (Nowell) some rhythm shots (in the fourth quarter) that we weren’t giving most of the game. Our dudes were battling for the full 27, 28 minutes and a matter of a couple miscues not closing down on him.”

Imhotep’s Makye Taylor, who is bound for Albany, knows better. Regardless of what Franklin Regional tried to do against Nowell, they would not be able to stop him.

“Ahmad has a purpose and comes to practice every day with a mindset that runs off on everybody else,” said Taylor, who was wearing each one of his three state championship gold medals. “I talked about this very moment with Ahmad since the beginning of the season, and to get here to win another one these medals feels amazing. Ahmad has a purpose—that purpose is to win with all of us together.”

Mission accomplished for Agent 0.

By Quarter

Imhotep Charter (29-3) 17 | 16 | 8 | 18 || 59

Franklin Regional (27-4) 13 | 8 | 12 | 15 || 48

Scoring

Imhotep Charter: Ahmad Nowell 20, Makye Taylor 14, RJ Smith 8, Latief Lorenzano-White 7, Jeremiah White 4, Zaahir Muhammad-Gray 3, Zion Green 2, Carnell Henderson 1.

Franklin Regional: Cameron Rowell 15, Fin Hutchison 9, Colin Masten 8, Cooper Rankin 6, Connor Crossey 4, Jack Spagnol 2, Josh Hudak 2.

Joseph Santoliquito is a hall of fame, 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.