City of Basketball Love

Christy Selagy (@ChristySelagy)
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As a graduate of Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School in Philadelphia, Pa., Ja’Quan Newton is no stranger to the Palestra. In fact, Newton started the Catholic League Championship game all four years he attended Neumann-Goretti, where he left the all-time leading scorer in the PCL’s illustrious history.

His senior year, Newton helped lead the Saints to a 22-4 record, and their sixth Catholic League Championship title in a row, a game in which he scored 23 points.

In his return to the Palestra, Newton, a sophomore guard at the University of Miami, scored 10 points and had two rebounds in 19 minutes of play--not the normal for those used to seeing him drop 1,972 points in his stellar prep career--in a 95-49 win over the Explorers of La Salle.

Newton had friends and family at the game, though he wasn’t sure exactly how many came to see him play.

“I don’t think I could count them,” he said. “There were a lot.”

There were a fair amount of Hurricanes fans at the game, including friends and family of Newton, junior guard and Ewing, N.J. native Davon Reed, and Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga, according to Larrañaga.

Newton was cheered on with every play he made. And there were a few familiar moments--a tough right-handed drive where he drew a foul, a floater in the lane, things he did all the time wearing the Saints uniform. Except this time, instead of the white and gold uniforms of the Saints, he was in the orange and black of the Hurricanes.

“Emotional” is the one word Newton said he would use to describe his return to a building that’s been home to some of his most impressive performances.

“I have a lot of memories in here,” Newton said. “When I walked in here for shootaround and practice, I just looked around and went ‘I remember playing in this building.’”

Though Newton didn’t see the kind of playing time he had in past games at the Palestra, he was still glad to be back. He’ll spend the next few days in Philly with his family before heading back to Miami on Dec. 26 to prepare for a game against Princeton on Dec. 29.

Larrañaga has seen much improvement from Newton since last season, when the 6-foot-2 guard averaged 4.0 ppg in 13.5 mpg; entering play on Tuesday, he was averaging 11.9 ppg in 21.5 mpg. Larrañaga noted that Newton’s game has improved primarily because of the high amount of effort he’s put into practicing.

“I just think he worked on his game,” Larrañaga said. “He’s very, very aggressive. I think he’s always in attack mode, which is good. He’s defending better.”

In a little over half the amount of minutes he played last season, Newton has scored almost as many points this season. In 459 minutes in the 2014-15 season, he scored 135 points; after tonight’s game, he has scored 129 points in 236 minutes.

Larrañaga also cited Newton’s improvement in free throw percentage as an indication of his hard work paying off.

Last season, Newton had a free throw percentage of 64.1. This season, his percentage has improved to 76.7 percent.

“Last year, his free throw shooting percentage was not nearly as good as it needed to be,” Larrañaga said. “He worked on it all summer, like he did his three-point shot, and both of them now are much improved.”

Larrañaga, who was coaching at the Palestra for the first time in his career, understood the importance of the Cathedral of College Basketball--not just for Newton, but also for the City of Philadelphia and basketball in general.

Larrañaga wanted his team to understand the significance as well as familiarize them with Philly. He had one of the team’s graduate assistants put together a three-minute video that highlighted the history of the Palestra.

“We told him, “The Palestra is a very special place… Let’s kind of give the players an idea of what the City of Philadelphia is like and the arena that we’re going to play in,’” Larrañaga said. “A lot of our players have heard of Madison Square Garden, but they’ve never really heard of the Palestra.”

Appropriately, the final highlight of the video featured Newton. The video showed Kobe Bryant dunking the ball, followed by Newton dunking the ball.

The team loved it, and told Newton that it was a great play. Newton, however, didn’t suspect that he would be featured in the video.

“I was surprised,” Newton said. “I didn’t think they were going to pick that to show the team. I just was excited.”

With a little under two minutes left to play against La Salle, Newton’s night ended. As he walked off the court, the Palestra erupted in applause.

It wasn’t the first time he’d gotten such a reaction in the same gym. But this one felt a little different.

“When I came out of the game at the end, and everybody was cheering and standing up for me,” he said, “that was really emotional.”