City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Jaekwon Carlyle was not about to let his senior night at Imhotep get ruined by a loss.

In the Panthers’ final regular season home game, Carlyle sparked a huge run at the beginning of the fourth quarter which led Imhotep to a 65-50 win over Constitution on Monday night. Carlyle scored or assisted on his team’s first 10 points in the quarter, and the Hampton commit finished with 22 points as Imhotep finished off a perfect Public League regular season at 10-0.

“We have such a good backcourt, and you really have to account for him and Daron (Russell) and a few other guys,” Imhotep coach Andre Noble said. “So when Jaekwon gets going, he can be really good. And that’s what you saw in the fourth quarter.”

The game was tied, 43-43, entering the final eight minutes, and the Panthers (18-3, 10-0) started them on a tear, scoring the quarter’s first 13 points. Carlyle knocked down a free throw on Imhotep’s first possession and followed it with a 3-pointer moments later. The senior assisted on the next two baskets – both layups for fellow senior Joshua Townsend – but the defining play of the quarter came a few minutes later.

With Imhotep already up by 10 points, junior Daron Russell found a seam in the lane and blasted off for a one-handed slam that sent the home crowd into a state of pandemonium. Russell was held to just eight points on the game, but none in the contest were louder than those two.

The Panthers ended up outscoring Constitution 22-7 in the fourth quarter, erasing all memories of the 13-point lead the Generals (11-10, 4-5) held six minutes into the game. Constitution coach Rob Moore said he saw similarities to Monday’s game and the Generals first meeting with Imhotep this season. In that December matchup, the Panthers led by just two after three quarters and went on to win, 66-51.

“They wore us down,” Moore said. “They have so many athletes, and they just wore us out on the glass. They got so many offensive rebounds, and we missed so many free throws before the fourth quarter, we weren’t in a position to front run. So when it was tied, I told one of my assistants, we need to make a quick run or we could lose by double-digits. It was the same thing that happened the last game.”

Moore added he thought his team played a pretty much perfect first half and was pleased with the Generals’ spacing, ball movement and shooting. They ended up scoring 30 points in the final three quarters after 20 in the first, however, and got most of their points from three sources.

Junior Jamaal Brown had a team-high 15 points, knocking down five 3-pointers off the bench. Meanwhile, point guard Tamir Green had 13 points and three assists, while forward Maurice Waters also scored 13 and grabbed seven boards.

Townsend was second in scoring for Imhotep with 11 points, and he had a double-double in his final home game as he had 11 rebounds. The Panthers got points from nine different players, and outscored the Generals, 56-30, over the final three quarters.

Both teams have some regular season business to wrap up this week. Constitution faces Del-Val Charter in a rescheduled game, while Imhotep has an out-of-state affair with Cardinal Hayes (N.Y.). But attention will soon be focused on the playoffs.

First will come the league playoffs, and Constitution met Imhotep in the Public League final a season ago with the Panthers holding on for a 77-75 victory. If the Generals get another shot at Imhotep this year, it will come in a championship rematch.

“If we make it there, my guys should know that we can play with these guys,” Moore said. “We just have to play near perfect, and we did for a while today.”

At Imhotep, meanwhile, a flawless Public League regular season is nice. But the team’s work is far from done.

“It wasn’t even one of our goals,” Noble said of going 10-0 in league play. “It’s nice because we’re winning games, but it’s not something we really talked about. We want to win championships. Our goal here is to put up banners.”