Better ending this year for Imhotep's Wooten in state final

UNIVERSITY PARK - When he wasn't drying his eyes with his sleeve, or rubbing the pit of his stomach, somehow trying to make the pain go away, Khyree Wooten had one constant thought at this time last year:

"I gotta get back to Penn State, so I can win a state title."

At the time, Wooten was not envisioning a couple of major plot twists, but stability is not a feature of modern-era basketball so . . .

The 6-1, 165-pound Wooten is now a junior wing guard at Imhotep Charter, and he served throughout the just-completed season as mostly a substitute. He spent his first 2 years at Strawberry Mansion and if he had stayed, it's not unreasonable to think he would have racked up 20 points per game, perhaps even 25.

"That doesn't matter," Wooten said. "I just want to win."

Saturday, he did just that.

In 15 minutes off the bench, Wooten shot 6-for-18 for 12 points and added two assists as the Panthers (31-3) dismantled Greensburg Central Catholic (27-4), of suburban Pittsburgh, 67-34, to capture their second PIAA Class AA championship in 3 years.

The 33-point victory margin is the highest in AA final history, besting 31 by Prep Charter in 2006 over Beaver Falls (82-51), and the triumph enabled District 12 to complete a Triple Crown weekend. Math, Civics & Sciences Charter (A) and Ss. Neumann-Goretti (AAA) had triumphed Friday night.

The PIAA went to four classifications for basketball in the 1983-84 season. Only twice - in 2003 and 1987, District 3 each time - had a grouping from the eastern half of the state claimed a title trifecta.

In 2010, after bumping off Imhotep, 49-47 in a semifinal, Mansion lost the state final, to South Fayette, by that very same score.

Wooten, already a star (334 points for the season), could only watch the last 2 minutes, 41 seconds of that game, after fouling out on an offensive push.

"I was pretty mad and upset about losing," he said yesterday morning via cell phone, as the Panthers bused back to Philly. "It stayed with me for a couple days, then I told myself I had to get back in the gym and start working to get better . . . Well, really, it stayed with me for a couple weeks."

His decision to follow the transfer winds came later.

There were rumors he'd wind up at a Catholic League power, or even at a suburban public school known for quality hoops. Instead, he wound up at a school returning all five starters.