City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Mastery North had been building up plenty of confidence in its first year in the top level of the Public League, without a loss through the first month of the season.

Imhotep Charter, no stranger to Pub ‘A’ Division battles, needed to knock its new rival down a peg.

The Panthers didn’t exactly put together their best effort on Tuesday, but it was enough to come into Mastery North and walk out with a 61-54 win over the Pumas.

Imhotep head coach Andre Noble has his team play a national-level schedule each year, something that’s turned out to be a blessing and a curse for the Panthers. When you play national-level teams like La Lumiere (Ind.), DeMatha (Md.), Gill St. Bernard (N.J.) and others in the non-league, it’s hard to get as amped up for the league opponents back home.

“When we go away, we know we’re playing against very good teams, and we’re very good, so it’s a certain way we’ve got to prepare,” senior guard Bernard Lightsey said. “When we come back, it’s just the Pub -- we feel as though we’re the best team in the Pub, but some teams, when we come back, we play down to the level of competition.”

Mastery North (9-1, 2-1) didn’t have its best showing on Tuesday. Star junior guard Jamir Reed was in-and-out on a good number of 3-point attempts, finishing with 14 points. The Pumas as a team shot 31 percent from the floor (17-of-45) and were 18-of-28 (61 percent) from the line, though they were only 6-of-14 in the first half, and committed 15 turnovers.

But that was nearly enough.

Imhotep (10-2, 3-0) took a 20-point lead early in the third quarter before the turnover woes that had bothered it all game really took over. The Panthers coughed it up 22 times, allowing Mastery North to get within eight points in the game’s final two minutes. Despite a sizeable advantage on the glass, Imhotep still took 12 fewer shots than Mastery North, and nine fewer foul shots.

Noble knows he has the most talented roster in the Public League, with four Division I prospects typically in the starting lineup and a couple more coming off the bench. But he also knows an outing like the one his team put together won’t cut it come postseason.

“Any team can beat you when they play hard, when they scrap, and make a few shots...especially when you’re turning the ball over and not playing well,” he said. “If we don’t get better at that, we’ll be like where we were two years ago when we lost to Del-Val [in the Public League championship game.]”

Imhotep’s balanced offensive attack still showed through against Mastery North, even with star junior Donta Scott sitting this game out for an off-the-court issue. Lightsey led the way with 13 points and sophomore forward Elijah Taylor had 10 and 10 rebounds; juniors Fatayn Wesley (9 points/3 rebounds/3 assists), Chereef Knox (8 points/8 rebounds/3 blocks) and Dahmir Bishop (7 points/3 assists) chipped in as well.

The jump from national schedule to local foes hasn’t ended yet for Imhotep. The Panthers travel up to Springfield, Mass. this weekend to take on Hillhouse (Conn.) in the Hoophall Classic, but not before facing Constitution at home on Thursday. Still to come later in the is a game against Camden, nestled in just before the Public League playoffs begin in February.

If they haven’t figured out it by then, the Public League tournament won’t be nearly as open-and-shut as the Panthers’ players might think.

“The team that wins the Pub is the team that plays the toughest, it’s not always the most talented,” Noble said. “We don’t take advantage of the opportunities that we have. If we do that against King, do that against any of these teams, we’re going to lose on a bad day. If we don’t get better at that, we won’t have a successful season.”