City of Basketball Love

Daniel Hughes (@dan1el_sun)
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When Jameer Nelson, Jr. and Bobby Stratts step up for the Haverford School, the Fords look like the best team in the Inter-Ac.

In their first year on the varsity squad, Nelson and Stratts have been chipping in to Haverford’s resurgent season. On Tuesday however, they showed up big as the Fords blew out rival Malvern Prep, 80-59 in another league win.

Haverford (15-1, 4-0) usually relies heavily on stars Kharon Randolph and Christian Ray. While Ray (22 points, 16 rebounds) and Randolph (12 points) certainly got their opportunities, the win against Malvern Prep featured standout performances from Nelson and Stratts, who scored 15 and 14 points respectively.

“In the beginning of the season, Jameer and I, we both started on the bench and we just said from the beginning we want to get more minutes, and so all we’ve got to do is work hard in practice, and then when we play in games, we’ve got to show them why we deserve these minutes,” Stratts said. “Games like this, I just look back and smile, because I really hold myself to that and it reflected on my game.”

Nelson, a 5-foot-11 guard, has found success as a shooter. Against the Friars, he took and made all five of his shots from behind the 3-point line.

The son of former Saint Joseph’s legend and current NBA player Jameer Nelson, Sr., the younger Nelson is slowly but surely adjusting to the varsity level after spending his freshman season on the JV team.

Haverford coach Bernie Rogers has noticed that the more time he gives to the sophomore, the better he gets.

“Jameer is so gifted that I think the more he plays the better he’s going to get,” Rogers said. “He’s super unselfish (and) humble, but I think (he’s) starting to realize (he) can be pretty good.”

Rogers put Nelson. into the starting lineup in December and has not looked back since. Against Malvern Prep he was given the green light to shoot.

Nelson believes the steady improvement in his game from last season has simply been a result of having more confidence.

“Last year I was a little more conservative, now I think I’m more aggressive,” Nelson, Jr. said. “I’m better because I think I’m better, instead of just being better.”

The 6-7 Stratts came off the bench early on when starting forward Asim Richards got into foul trouble. He made all six of his shots from the field and both of his free-throw attempts, which came from a pair of and-ones.

“Coach says guys off the bench, be ready,” Stratts said. “I just think how hard can I work for three, four, five minutes and really give to my team, whether it’s scoring, rebounds, blocks or anything.”

“I try to put my mentality in all the other guys too. If we work this hard, this is how good we can really be,” he continued. “As coach told me, I just had to go out there and work. Those three minutes became six minutes.”

Those 14 points represented a new career high for Stratts, who also plays soccer for Haverford School. The junior forward is recently experiencing a sports renaissance.

Stratts, who was cut from the Haverford School’s middle school basketball team in seventh grade, moved to the United Kingdom with his family where he spent eighth and ninth grade at the American School in London. When he moved back to Philadelphia for his sophomore year of high school, sports took on a more significant role in his life.

“Basketball really re-ignited for me when I came back to the States just because the competition level was so much higher,” he said. “It was very different out here, it’s just friendly neighborhoods.”

Stratts and Nelson were instrumental during the game-changing run in the win over Malvern Prep (6-8, 2-2). With the score tied at 15 midway through the first quarter, the Fords went on a 15-point run to double the Friars score, 30-15. They went into the break leading 41-21.

“We took our press off and switched to a little zone, and I thought we probably defended better out of that as the game went on,” Rogers said. “It allowed us to get set and try to make them shoot over us every time rather than them beating us down the court and getting an open look.”

Haverford doubled down on Malvern’s score once more, at the end of the third quarter, when they led 60-30. The starters didn’t play long into the fourth.

Malvern Prep was led by freshman guard Kieves “Deuce” Turner, who had 16 points and seven rebounds; sophomore Tygee Leach added 12 as the only other member of the Friars in double figures. They’ll try to bounce back with a home game against Germantown Academy on Friday.

The Fords, meanwhile will try to keep their unbeaten streak alive with a trip to Penn Charter marking the midway point of league play as they look for their first Inter-Ac title since 1999. The Quakers are 9-7 (1-3) after beating SCH Academy by 27 on Tuesday.

“Friday night at Penn Charter we’ve got a big bullseye on us,” Stratts said. “So we’ve got to focus in all our practices and be ready for these teams to come at our necks.”