City of Basketball Love

By Finn Courtney (@finncourtney_)
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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 2024-25 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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For most teams, back-to-back runner-up finishes in the Philadelphia Public League would be seen as an achievement - for the Imhotep girls program, however, it fuels a desire to get back atop the mountaintop they once sat upon after suffering a second consecutive championship defeat to Audenried.  

And entering his ninth season as head coach, David Hargrove is not shying away from high expectations.

“The expectation is to be at our best come playoff time and if that happens, I feel like we’re gonna hit all our goals. I feel like we’re gonna win a state championship, we’re gonna reclaim the Public League Championship and we’re gonna win a city championship.”

Hargrove has a lot of talent on this team to work with to try and accomplish those goals, including four talented seniors returning from a season ago who stand ready to fill graduated seniors Asia Taylor and Aubrey Wroten-Thomas’ roles on and off the court.

“We got a good group returning, so we expect Sabria Mann, Anise Geiger, Calista Gaymon, Kayla Thompson, those are our four seniors so we’re definitely expecting them to step up and take a bigger leadership role as our younger players follow their lead,” Hargrove said.

In Mann and Thompson — two CoBL all-area honorable mentions a season ago, Thompson a first-team All-Public selection — Hargrove has two veteran guards who ooze defensive savviness and high-IQ play on the offense end, be it in a regular season or postseason game, such as last year’s Philadelphia Public League semifinal matchup with Freire Charter, where Thompson rescued the Panthers with a team-high 12 points or Mann’s continued growth throughout her junior campaign.

“[I’m aiming] to be the best player I can be for my team, making sure that I put my defensive cap on, that’s what I’m good at and making sure that I stop the ball,” Mann said. “Making sure that we all work together and we all make each other comfortable and work to get the job done.”

While last season’s team (along with every other Public League team) could not stop the dominance of Penn State commit and Audenried star Shayla Smith — who scored 37 in that fateful championship game — this year’s senior nucleus is looking to flip the script.

“We feel good,” Mann said, “I feel like we know that we are capable and that this year, we are going to get it done.”

Size is also an advantage on the side of the Panthers, as Mann (5-9), Gaymon (5-7), Thompson (5-7) and sophomore guard Ava Hargrove (5-8) all give Imhotep size on the perimeter, and on the frontcourt side, Hargrove is loaded with some height. 

Along with incumbent center Geiger (6-1), coming off a great campaign and a first-team All-Public selection, Imhotep also has 5-10 juniors Crystal and Geren Hawthorne, a formidable pairing to match with Geiger. Geren Hawthorne, in particular, is poised for big things, after combining with Geiger for 25 points (11 and 14 respectively) in the championship loss. For Hargrove, all that size might look great on paper, but its impact is going to come down to a simple thing: wins and losses.

“The size has to equal to production and that production has to contribute to winning basketball games,” Hargrove said. “That’s on both sides of the court, so we need to be a great rebounding team, that’s gonna start our transition and we need to be a great finishing team, just getting to the rim runs and finishing around the basket. Our size is gonna be productive, points and rebounds, that’s really what we want out of our size.”

That size and length is going to allow the Panthers to really spread the floor on the offensive end be it for Gaymon, Mann, Thompson or a player stepping into a bigger role this season, like 5-2 guard Ashlee Boykin.

Boykin started against Sanford School at the CoBL Fall Classic in early October and the sophomore played well, perhaps not registering all that much in the statbook but in the intangibles, providing a loud, vocal presence on the floor and impressing with her court vision.

“Ashlee is growing a lot from freshman to sophomore year, she takes a lot of responsibility to be vocal and to become a better leader,” Hargrove said. “So she’s learning, it’s a lot for her but she’s learning.”

Boykin will likely play a sizable role, following Taylor — the incumbent point guard for a few seasons — graduating and the Panthers not having a true point guard amongst their veterans. While there is still a good deal of development ahead, the goals for her play this year are clear in Hargrove’s eyes.

“With her position on the team, she’s an extension ‘cause she’s a point guard and she has to have a high understanding of what we need to do as a team, as a group and what everybody’s role is on our team,” Hargrove said.

Poised to lose a major chunk of their scoring and starters to graduation after this season, Hargrove, Mann and the entire Panthers team top to bottom are looking to put their all towards one final ride to the top - their first since this senior class’ freshman year. Only this time, if they return to the top of the mountain, they’ll be the stars creating the moment rather than watching it from the sidelines.