City of Basketball Love

Ethan Miller (@ByEthanMiller)
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After losing both head-to-head matchups against Constitution High School last season, Imhotep Charter bounced back with authority, beating the Generals 66-51 in the first matchup between the two Philadelphia Public League rivals this year.

Both teams have a lot of talent on their rosters, but Imhotep--the No. 2 team in CoBL’s preseason AAA state rankings--had more gas in the tank against Constitution, ranked fourth in Class A.

Coming out of the gate with momentum, Imhotep took an early lead at the end of the first quarter, leading 20-12. To start off the second quarter, 6-foot-4 junior wing, Jaquan Arrington had his second of four monster dunks in the game to keep the energy flowing.

“He’s a really good athlete, we always thought he was. I think the biggest thing is being comfortable playing,” Imhotep coach Andre Noble said. “He could be the best player in his class, you just saw some of the things he can do. He’s a sharpshooter and he gets to the rim really well.”

Arrington didn’t have a major role last season for the Panthers (2-1, 2-0 Public League 'A"), averaging six points coming off the bench. This season it’s a total different story as he and his fellow juniors, including Daron Russell and Koby Thomas, try to help take up a leadership role.

“We have a lot of new leadership roles for this season,” Arrington said. “We have a lot of younger dudes on the team this year and us experienced guys need to show them the style of basketball we play because we’re all going to be here for a couple years.”

While Arrington finished with a game-high of 23 points, Russell showed his abilities of sharing the ball and getting to the rim, finishing with 10 points and 11 assists.

With 5:07 left in the second quarter, Russell checked out with a leg injury but came back and battled through it for the rest of the game.

“I think (Russell), who was hurt the whole game, played a great game,” Noble said. “He was a little banged up from the Del-Val game prior to this game, but Daron played super gutsy tonight. When he get’s the ball moving like he did tonight it’s extremely hard to beat us.”

Although it was all Imhotep in the first half, 6-6 junior forward Maurice Waters of Constitution slammed down a dunk before the buzzer cutting the margin to nine, 34-25 at the half. Waters finished with a team-high 14 points.

Coming out of the half it was all Constitution, who went on an early 11-3 run to start the third, tying the game at 37-37. Eight of those 13 points came from junior guard Tamir Green, who finished with 11 points.

The Generals (1-3, 0-1) won the quarter 15-8, heading into the fourth quarter trailing Imhotep 42-40. It wasn’t enough for the Generals as Imhotep would recover and go on a 10-4 run in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter leading 52-44.

“I don’t care what people think on who's the better team, league wins in this division is never easy on the road,” Noble said. “They are not easy anytime, and they are definitely not easy going in someone else’s space. We got a little rattled in the third but I’m glad we picked it back up.”

Russell helped close out the win going 2-2 from the line and hitting a smooth cross over jumper from the point with 2:40 left in the game. Continuing the dominant play was a pair of dunks that came from Arrington and 6-foot-5 senior forward Joshua Townsend to close out the game.

Arrington had a huge role in the fourth-quarter spurt scoring nine points in a four minute stretch, while getting to the line two times drawing contact three times going to the rim.

“I’m just trying to get to rim and become a great finisher, that’s the overall goal.” Arrington said. “I worked in the off-season at the gym and it’s my main focus to become better down low.”

Other notable play came from senior guard Jaekwon Carlyle, a Hampton signee who finished with 13 points, and Thomas, who finished with six points.

The Panthers never looked back as they went on a 24-11 run in the fourth quarter storming past the Generals with a great early conference win.

“Defensively we aren’t where we want to be as a basketball program, but we will get better,”  Noble said. “Well we better because we have a tough one on Sunday against St.Francis (Md.) so it’s not going to get any easier.”