City of Basketball Love

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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Every high school basketball coach would love to have a player on their team that both shows leadership in the locker room and is also a freak of nature on the court.

For Shipley head coach Phil D’Ambrosio, he is lucky to have that type of player in Sam Sessoms.

Sessoms, a 5-foot-11 junior point guard, has shown that he is a leader in the locker room as well as a leader on the court.

In the first half of a Friends’ League semifinal game against Friends’ Central, Shipley didn’t look like a team that had won 15 straight games heading into Tuesday night.

That was, until Sessoms had something to say about it.

“When we come in and we’re down by seven at halftime, he’s extremely fired up because he was not all that pleased with his teammates attitude and what they did early on in the game.” D’Ambrosio said.

“He said his part at halftime, he made the guys get going and that was just pure will and determination out there putting the team on his back and doing whatever needs to be done to get the victory,” the coach added.

Sessoms did indeed put the team on his back in the second half, posting a game-high 32 points, scoring 27 in the second half and 15 in the fourth quarter, while also adding eight rebounds, two assists and two steals to his name in leading a 65-51 Shipley victory over Friends Central.

Sessoms showed of his scoring ability in a multitude of ways. He drove strong to the hoop, he hit the step-back mid-range ‘J’ and even hit 3-pointers from Jimmer Fredette range.

“I figured they were going to start playing back in the zone because I usually drive a lot so once I had three straight jump shots, I started attacking them afterwards because they figured I got my rhythm going,” Sessoms said. “I was just looking to keep the pace up and push the tempo.”

“Sam has the heart of a lion, that’s what it comes down to,” D’Ambrosio said. “He’s very driven, he refuses to lose, that’s his mentality.”

High-scoring games aren’t foreign to Sessoms. His season-high was 36 points against George School and he has also had nine other games this year where he has scored 25 points or more.

Sessoms is only four points away from becoming Shipley’s all-time leading scorer, a record he’s poised to run away from with one more year left at the school.

“It means a lot to come to any high school program and leave as the all-time leading scorer,” Sessoms said. “There were a lot of great players that passed through here and it’s a great accomplishment.”

With seven minutes left in the third quarter, Friends Central forward Justin Steers, who looked like he was on pace for a double-double, picked up his fourth foul which forced him to sit the rest of the third quarter.

With seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Steers fouled out of the game leaving a gaping hole in Friends Central’s zone defense.

That is when Sessoms took advantage of the open space in the paint and turned on the jets, going on a personal 10-0 run.

With 4:40 left in the game, Sessoms hit a mid-range jumper to extend the lead to five, then he hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to eight with 4:21 to go. A crafty move to finish with his left hand at the tin put Shipley up by 12 with 3:20 left in the game and all but sealed it.

“The ball has to hit the middle and you’ve got to continue to attack the basket and that’s what we were doing.” D’Ambrosio said. “We were making the extra pass and because of it, we put them in foul trouble and they had a couple guys early on in foul trouble so it was just more or less doing what we needed to do.”

Shipley freshman guard Khai Champion added 17 points and three rebounds while center Ray Somerville posted five points, six rebounds and three blocks.

Friends Central and Wesleyan University bound point guard Antone Walker scored a team-high 23 points to go along with four rebounds. Steers added eight points and eight rebounds before fouling out.

While Shipley will surely celebrate the win, the Gators have a much larger task ahead when they face off against a powerful Westtown School squad led by projected top-5 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft Mohamed Bamba, Stony Brook commit Anthony Ochefu and Arizona commit Brandon Randolph for the Friends League championship on Friday.

“Honestly, we’re not going to go against the grain.” D’Ambrosio said. “We’re going to do what got us here, We’re going to run, we’re going to make them run with us, obviously they’re very big on the interior, no doubt about it, but at the same time, we’re going to continue to stick with our guard play, we’re shooting the ball very well right now, as long as we’re making that extra pass we’ll be just fine.”

Sessoms echoed his coach.

“My mindset is going to be the same,” he said. “Go out there, play my game."