Austin makes sure Imhotep stays alive

BRANDON AUSTIN is not one of those guys who favors the roundabout route.

Ask him a question and he'll respond as if he just placed his hand on a Bible and took a seat in the witness chair.

A shade before 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon, Austin was asked whether he'd allowed himself to think that maybe Imhotep Charter's basketball season had been destined to end.

"That was the only thought in my mind," he said.

The 6-6, 175-pound Austin, a junior combo guard (and sometimes even a forward), has already announced an oral commitment to Penn State. At halftime of the Panthers' Class AA quarterfinal vs. Bishop McDevitt, played in Germantown's sun-plashed gym, he took a vow to do everything possible to make sure the season would be extended.

McDevitt 28, Imhotep 18. Those were the intermission numbers.

Imhotep 65, McDevitt 54. That was the final score.

Austin finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and six steals while making coach Andre Noble a 20-game winner for the seventh consecutive season. And in the second half he used his 7-footerish wing span to hold Brahieme Jackson, McDevitt's most reliable scorer, to two points on just one shot.

Austin acknowledged Noble was not exactly Mr. Happy in the halftime locker room, especially since McDevitt's Tymere Wilder had ended the first 16 minutes with a steal and lengthy, push-shot trey.

Neither was he.

"I was real [hissed] off," he said. "I knew my team could do better. And we showed that in the second half.

"Coach went real nuts on us. Talked about how we weren't giving full effort. How we were settling for jump shots. How we weren't playing tough defense. How we weren't rebounding. Another half like that, he said, and our season would be over. Bad first halves, that's our pattern, sometimes."

One of the aforementioned problems was addressed shortly into the third quarter. In the first half, the two inside guys, Shakur Nesmith (Temple, for football) and Nigel Grant, had attempted no shots. Not even sure they'd breathed on the ball.

Zip. Khyree Wooten hit Nesmith for an easy bucket. Soon, Grant was scoring on an unchallenged follow and Kamani Jordan was hitting a sensible trey to put the Panthers ahead for good at 34-32. Austin added another threebie on the next possession and Imhotep, a state kingpin 2009 and '11, was lookin' like its ol' self.

"It gave us a good feeling to play like that," Austin said. "After we looked so bad in the first half, maybe people thought we'd come back out and give up. Nah, we kept playing.

"One thing we did was dominate the boards, which helped us do great in transition. And we were getting steals and turning them into buckets, too."

Austin shot 8-for-18 (4-for-8 on treys) and 4-for-4, and his free throws featured a long spell of intense concentration.

At the other end, he showed similar attention to detail.

"I was sitting on Jackson's right hand," Austin said. "He doesn't really go left. I'd wait on the help and make sure to close him off."

With a big boost from three beyond-the-arcs, Jordan jammed 17 of his 19 points into the second half. Grant posted all eight of his markers in the 24-8 third quarter.

When Imhotep turned up the pressure, McDevitt was especially hurt by the absence of co-star Markeise Chandler, who'd injured his ankle in a second-round game. Tyrell Long (17), Jackson (12; made all five of his floor shots) and Carl Garner scored in double figures for the Lancers and Jackson claimed nine rebounds.

With triumphs in the first and second rounds, coach Jack Rutter's ballclub had given the school twice as many postseason wins as it claimed since joining the Catholic League for the 1963-64 season.

Austin, who lives on Dennie Street, near Wayne Avenue (short walk from Simon Gratz), plans to major in sports management upon reaching Penn State. He said he'd gotten to know Nittany Lion assistant Keith Urgo during Urgo's stint at Villanova.

"When he went to Penn State, he recruited me harder for them," Austin noted. "I was thinking I'd wait a little longer to make a college commitment, but the offer was there and that was the school I wanted. I'm looking forward to playing with D.J. Newbill [graduate of Strawberry Mansion]."

Might Brandon Austin try to convince other players to join him at Penn State?

"Of course," he said with a smile. "But I'll worry about that in the summer. All I want now is another state chip."