Imhotep Charter looks to make history with its sixth straight Public League boys’ basketball title
Zaahir Muhammad-Gray and Latief Lorenzano-White were the driving force behind Imhotep's 73-41 win over Constitution. For the Generals, however, Tuesday’s semifinal was accompanied by controversy.
Last year, Zaahir Muhammad-Gray suffered a torn ACL in Imhotep Charter’s third game of the season and could not play during the Panthers’ run to a fifth-consecutive Public League boys’ basketball title.
This season the 6-foot-7 junior forward helped lift the Panthers to their sixth consecutive Public League championship appearance with a 73-41 drubbing to Constitution High School at La Salle’s John Glaser Arena on Tuesday evening.
Latief Lorenzano-White finished with a game-high 22 points for the Panthers, while Muhammad-Gray added 17, 11 of which came in the second half.
Muhammad-Gray has yet to be on a team who misses the Public League title game. But the forward says being sidelined in last year’s postseason makes this one sweeter.
“I’ve been here before,” Muhammad-Gray said. “I’ve been here every year, so I’m kind of getting used to it now. Just sitting out the last year made me miss it even more.”
Muhammad-Gray reclassified from the class of 2026 to the class of 2027 after tearing his ACL. He has scholarship offers from Temple, La Salle, Penn State, and Georgia Tech, among others. He’s considered the second-best junior prospect in the state.
“[Muhammad-Gray is] a Division I basketball player,” said Imhotep coach Andre Noble. “He’s one of our team captains. That’s what we expected.”
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Imhotep’s other captain, Lorenzano-White, scored 16 of his 22 in the first half as Imhotep bowled over an outmatched Constitution team. The 6-foot-4 senior guard is committed to play at Drexel next season.
“Today, I just was seeing the rim,” Lorenzano-White said. “We’ve been preaching it for the last couple of practices and games, to get to the rim and not settling for jump shots.”
The Panthers led, 38-14, at halftime. Their lead ballooned to 35 with 3 minutes, 5 seconds to play in the fourth before Noble pulled his starters.
The Panthers will face West Philadelphia in the Public League title game at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Glaser Arena.
Imhotep, seeking its sixth straight Public League title, will have a chance to make Public League history on Sunday.
“No team’s ever done it,” Muhammad-Gray said of winning six straight Pub titles. “I would love to be the first team.”
‘Unfortunate for all parties’
While Constitution lost to Imhotep in Tuesday’s semifinal, the game was accompanied by controversy that began last week during Constitution’s quarterfinal game against Carver Engineering and Science.
Constitution trailed E&S, 61-49, with 1 minute, 11 seconds to play last Thursday when an altercation started. Spectators flooded the court, leading officials to suspend the game with 71 seconds remaining.
The Public League disqualified E&S from the game because its entire bench came onto the floor during the skirmish, which is a violation of the league’s unsportsmanlike conduct policy and results in a full-team suspension of the following game.
The quarterfinal was ruled a forfeit by E&S, allowing Constitution to advance to the semifinals to face Imhotep. However, an official’s report noted that a Constitution player instigated the altercation, and spectators from the Constitution bleachers came onto the floor.
Rob Moore, Constitution’s head coach and athletic director, called the events at the quarterfinal an “unfortunate situation.”
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“It’s just unfortunate for all parties involved,” Moore said. “Trying to get my guys ready to play and missing guys, obviously, against a team that every year is the cream of the league, cream of the state. … I’m proud of my guys for coming out and, through everything, coming out here and playing basketball.”
Moore also disputed the referee report that suggested the spectators who came onto the floor were affiliated with Constitution. Moore said accessing the electronic ticketing system E&S uses for its home games revealed that only one male Constitution student bought a ticket for the quarterfinal.
“We felt like we’ve been, basically, scapegoated as, we were just in the wrong with everything that happened,” Moore said. “In actuality, with all the facts that the district had to deal with, that just wasn’t the case.”
The Generals played with 10 players available against Imhotep. Three Constitution players were suspended and were not in jerseys for the game.
E&S attempted an emergency injunction from a Common Pleas Court judge on Tuesday in an effort to overturn its disqualification, but the team’s request was dismissed and the semifinal was played as scheduled.