City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Trevonn Pitts was understandably nervous for Cheltenham’s season-opening game against Central.

After all, the junior forward was in the Panthers’ varsity starting lineup for the first time. In his first high school basketball game, of any kind.

It didn’t take very long for him to get comfortable: midway through the second quarter, with their his team up 11, Cheltenham senior guard Khalil White had the ball in the open court, drawing two defenders before feeding a streaking Pitts down the right wing.

An instant later, the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Mt. Airy native rose up and threw down a ferocious tomahawk slam, igniting the crowd at Cheltenham High School.

“Once Khalil gave me the ball, I took my two (steps) and I just dunked the ball,” Pitts said. “I was working hard during the summer and when I came to practice I was just dunking crazy like that.”

Just 10 seconds after Pitts’ big slam, sophomore forward Amir Lewis had a slam of his own, sending the Panthers into the locker room with a 15-point lead that they would turn into a 58-30, season-opening win.

In his first high school game, Pitts finished with eight points, six rebounds and two assists, and made a big impression on all those involved.

“I think today was a preview,” said Cheltenham’s third-year head coach, John Timms. “He didn’t get a chance to show people the broad spectrum of his game, his game is much bigger than dunks...so I’m excited, I’m excited about Trevonn Pitts.”

A standout for the Panthers on the baseball diamond, where he plays third base, Pitts had been around the basketball program since his freshman year at Cheltenham, but hadn’t taken the leap to commit to playing for a full season until this year.

If his opening game was any indication, the Mt. Airy native could be in for a breakout season on the hardwood as well. Especially if he improves his free-throw shooting (1-6).

“He just started getting the swing of things a week ago, learning all the plays, stuff like that,” said White, who led all players in the win with 19 points. “I think once we get mid-season, he’s going to be one of our top scorers.”

If so, these Panthers could be even more dangerous than originally expected. After all, this is a group with nine seniors, led by White, Justin Sutton (eight points,  seven rebounds, five blocks), Maurice Valentine (six points, seven rebounds, three steals), and more--last year’s leading scorer, Anthony White, got in foul trouble early and finished with a solitary point.

The Panthers in general got off to something of a rough start, scoring just eight points in the first six minutes despite an attack-style offense and an uptempo defense, and led the visiting Lancers by just a point at the time.

“We’ve got some expectations, when you’ve got nine seniors on the team, it’s a lot of pressure, people expect you to win,” Timms said. “I said the first quarter, ‘get the jitters out, settle down,’ and I’m just happy that we were able to do that.”

It was still only a 22-19 game midway through the second period before Cheltenham really locked down on the defensive end. A 14-2 run capped by the two dunks made it 36-21 at halftime, and the Panthers ran into the locker room

“We were pumped,” Pitts said. “But Coach Timms told us to stay focused because the game’s not over, we didn’t win yet, so everybody stayed focus on defense and everything. He just told us to play hard on defense and keep our head in the game.”

They did just that, holding the Lancers to one field goal and three total points over the third quarter, which ended with a 51-24 lead and the game well in hand.

Cheltenham’s last bucket was a 3-pointer by White with 5:55 left, and there was no way Central was going to score enough to make up that deficit with the pressure the Panthers were putting on their guards.

“I learned we can get after it,” Timms said. “In my third year, I feel like defense is our trademark and today we stayed true to our trademark.”