City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
—

READING — Imhotep was in a place it hadn’t been too often: trailing at halftime of a PIAA state playoff game. 

Andre Noble’s Panthers entered Saturday’s PIAA 6A quarterfinal against Parkland on a 34-game state tournament winning streak going back to a semifinal loss to Neumann-Goretti exactly nine years prior — March 15, 2016. It’s a stretch that includes six state titles and two years with COVID difficulties, the 2020 tournament canceled before the quarterfinal and an absence the next year due to the pandemic. 

In most of those games, Imhotep won in runaway fashion, the Panthers building up a resume that’s one of the most dominant in the state’s history despite the school being only a couple years more than a quarter-century old. So when the Panthers went into the locker room behind by a bucket in a low-scoring contest, it would be understandable for there to be some discontent in the locker room.

Instead, senior Carnell Henderson said, the Panthers took the optimistic approach.

“We held a team to 19 [points] and had 10 turnovers in the first half,” he said, “and we were only down two.”

An already-stout ‘Tep defense tightened up even further on the Trojans, Noble’s squad playing one of its best defensive halves of the season in the second half of a 48-30 win on Saturday afternoon. 

Imhotep held Parkland to 11 points in the closing 16 minutes as Henderson (17 points) and junior guard RJ Smith (15 points) generated the offense needed for Imhotep to run its PIAA win streak to 35 straight. The Panthers didn’t force many turnovers (five second-half, 10 overall) but locked down in the half-court, holding the Trojans to 4-of-21 from the floor after halftime, 10-of-35 for the game. 

“They’re going to slow the game down,” Noble said of the District 11 champs, who made it back to the state quarterfinals despite graduating their entire starting lineup from last year’s state runner-ups. “When teams do that and we don’t turn them over in the full-court, you’ve got to buckle down and get stops. And I thought we did a great job, one of our best defensive halves in our season [in] the second half, only giving up 11 points.”

The PIAA 6A semifinal next Saturday, March 22, will be a rubber match between Imhotep and Father Judge at a venue and time to be announced. Roman Catholic will play Upper St. Clair in the other 6A semifinal; the championship game will be Saturday, March 29 at 8:00 PM in Hershey.

Carnell Henderson (2) brings the ball upcourt against Parkland. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Imhotep came out struggling to get in an offensive flow, committing some uncharacteristic mistakes — a few errant passes, a few dribbles out-of-bounds, some rushed shots. They had nine turnovers and only 17 points at halftime, Smith and Henderson combining for just six. 

But the pair of guards got rolling in the third, Smith hitting a 3-pointer and a pull-up while Henderson slashed to the rim a couple times, both getting to the line and knocking down two. Imhotep allowed just three points in the frame, taking a 31-22 lead into the fourth. 

By the time Parkland’s Blake Nassry finally connected on the team’s first 3-pointer of the second half, it was only to cut it to 35-27; a couple minutes later, Henderson’s 3-point play with 2:45 left made it 40-27 and all but put the game away.

“They were making contact with us and we weren’t taking it well,” Smith said, “but once we settled down, got to two feet in the lane, started making plays, it opened the game up.”

There’s no doubt that this year’s Imhotep boys squad has gone through more adversity than in years past. The lineup that Noble rolled out at the beginning of the year included 6-10 sophomore Zion Green, who transferred to Camden (N.J.) in December, and 6-7 junior wing Zaahir Muhammad-Gray, a high-major Division I recruit who suffered a significant leg injury in the preseason. 

With senior guard Talasi Henderson ineligible for states due to his status as a transfer, that left freshman guard Ian Smith in a starting lineup with fellow rookie Rocky Johnson as the Panthers’ sixth man. The expectations internally haven’t changed in the slightest. 

“Getting to the semifinals is not what this basketball program’s about,” Noble said. “It’s [to] win state championships. We talk about getting all three, and all of our kids talk about it — it’s winning the Pub, winning city titles, and winning state titles. That’s what our goals are at the beginning of the year, and this group is trying to make that last one happen.”

Getting to Hershey will be the toughest state playoff game Imhotep’s faced in quite some time. Father Judge is not only the Catholic League champion and loaded with talent under head coach Chris Roantree, they also know they can beat ‘Tep, having done so by two points back in December; Imhotep repaid the favor, winning the District 12 6A championship 58-54 at La Salle University on Feb. 28. 

What did Noble and his squad learn from playing them twice?

“Besides that they’re really good?” Noble responded with a chuckle. “They’re really good. Chris does a really good job. I know both teams are going to make some adjustments to the game we played the last time. And we have to have an incredible effort against them because they’re really, really good.”

By Quarter
Imhotep:   8   |   9   |  14  |  17  ||  48
Parkland:  7   |  12  |   3   |   8   ||  30

Shooting
Imhotep: 16-34 FG (2-12 3PT), 14-16 FT
Parkland: 10-35 FG (3-20 3PT), 7-12 FT

Scoring
Imhotep: Carnell Henderson 17, RJ Smith 15, Latief Lorenzano-White 9, Rocky Johnson 6, Ian Smith 1

Parkland: Blake Nassry 17, Jude Ruisch 6, Scott Bauer 2, Ryan Kearney 2, TJ Lawrence 2, Nassim Adams 1