HERSHEY, Pa. — Imani Christian made school history a season ago by winning its first PIAA basketball championship.
A second title Thursday earned the Saints a place in WPIAL history, as Imani Christian added its name to a short list of District 7 schools to repeat as state champions.
R.J. Sledge scored a game-high 22 points and WPIAL champion Imani Christian forced 26 turnovers to race to a 79-52 mercy-rule win against District 5 champion Berlin Brothersvalley in the Class 1A final at Giant Center.
Imani Christian (19-10), which improved to 36-0 against Class 1A opponents since the beginning of last season, became the first WPIAL team to win consecutive PIAA titles since Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in 2021-22. Before then, the last to do it had been Blackhawk in 1995-96.
“It’s historic,” said Khayree Wilson, a graduate of the school and the team’s first-year coach. “It feels like we’ve earned our place and we’re letting people know that we’re here and that we’re competing. We’re trying to turn this into a regular thing, a program that is constantly here, turning out athletes and winning championships.”
While Imani Christian finished in the same spot as it did last season, the Saints used a different recipe to rise to the top. Last year’s team was super sized with starters standing 6 feet 11 and 6-8. Those two players moved on (one of them, Alier Maluk, has since committed to Florida State), meaning the Saints became a lot smaller. But they also became quicker and more relentless defensively, something they showed Thursday when they turned a basketball game into a track meet.
“I say we have more heart than last year,” senior guard Nate Brazil said. “Skill-wise, we’re not better than last year. We’re smaller. Since we don’t have the size, we have to have the heart.”
Brazil added 18 points for the Saints after not playing in the game last season. He had to sit out those playoffs due to transfer rules. The presence of Brazil, who scored a career-high 48 points in a semifinal win against Bishop Carroll, along with playing at a faster pace allowed this Imani Christian team to run to a more lopsided win against a Berlin Brothersvalley team it beat, 81-64, to win last year’s title.
“I knew it was going to be tougher for us to play against this year’s team than last year’s team,” said Berlin Brothersvalley coach Tanner Prosser. “Last year, we could pull the bigs out and spread them out and take advantage of some ball screen stuff. This year, they just quickly recovered to our guys. We have great kids, but we don’t have any type of inside presence. We rely on spacing the floor, getting to gaps and shooting, and they’re able to recover quick. So yeah, honestly, this was a tougher team for us to play against than even last year’s team.”
Still, Berlin Brothersvalley held an 11-7 lead near the midway point of the first quarter, but that’s when Imani Christian took control. And when it did, the game got out of hand quickly. The Saints closed the first quarter on a 13-1 run to take an eight-point lead. And after Berlin Brothersvalley scored the first four points of the second quarter, the Saints blitzed the Mountaineers with a 19-0 run to increase their advantage to 39-16. Sledge and Brazil each scored seven points during the surge, which saw Berlin Brothersvalley go nearly six minutes without a field goal before a 3-pointer with 1:14 left pulled the Mountaineers to within 20 at the half. The Mountaineers committed nine turnovers in the quarter and 15 in the first half.
“We don’t have the bigs anymore, so we have to lock down the defense more. We take pride in defense, and we went on a 19-0 run,” said Sledge, a junior guard who might have become the first WPIAL player to win three consecutive WPIAL and PIAA titles. He won them as a freshman at Bishop Canevin.
Imani Christian continued to run and score frequently in the second half, and when Tristen Brown converted a transition layup with 3:03 left in the third, the mercy rule went into effect with the Saints leading, 58-28. By quarter’s end, the lead had ballooned to 38.
The Saints shot 33 of 70 from the field (47%) while holding Berlin Brothersvalley to 19-of-49 shooting (38%). Craig Jarvis led the Mountaineers with 18 points. Mckelvey Foor added 16 points and Pace Prosser 15 points and 14 rebounds. Prosser came into the game averaging 25 and Jarvis 21.
After making history two seasons in a row, Imani Christian can make even more next season should it become the first team from the WPIAL to win three consecutive PIAA titles. But if it does, it will come not in the smallest classification, but rather the largest. The Saints have elected to play in Class 6A next season. That state title game is always played on Saturday night.
“Man, I am excited. I’m ready to go,” Wilson said of moving up. “I’m ready to go in front of the big crowds and the big student sections, and I’m ready to start playing on Saturdays.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.