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Shinholster, Penn Charter take control of Inter-Ac destiny

01/28/2022, 10:45pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

Watching Trey Shinholster shoot the ball from beyond the arc, you’d think he had to be named for the 3-point shot. The Penn Charter junior guard can light it up from deep, with a shooter’s mindset on every possession, exactly like his name suggests.

And Trey isn’t a nickname — it’s the name given to him by his parents, Rick and Katie Shinholster, his dad a former standout at Philadelphia Textile (now Jefferson University) in the late 1980s.

Trey Shinholster shoots a basketball

Trey Shinholster (above) and Penn Charter picked up an important Inter-Ac League win on Friday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL

“I thought that (my dad) named me Trey just because of the 3-pointer,” he said, “but that’s not it.”

Instead, Rick wanted to name his son after his father and himself, both named Richard — but he didn’t like the name Richard. Instead, his oldest son is Trey Richard Shinholster, carrying on the family name in his own way.

“It was all Ricks, down the line,” Rick Shinholster said, “and we didn’t want to give him another Richard, so we called him Trey.”

Plus, Trey’s father reasoned, with the last name Shinholster, a one-syllable first name seemed like a smart idea. They stuck with the naming convention two years later; Kai Shinholster is a freshman on the Quakers’ varsity roster.

Regardless of its origin, when you grow up playing hoops with the name Trey, the 3-point shot takes on a little extra meaning. 

“Shooting 3s was always something that I’ve been working on,” Trey Shinholster said. “My dad was a good 3-point shooter; he went to Jefferson, across the street, and he learned how to shoot there. He’s been teaching me and my brother how to shoot for the past few years and getting it right.”

Shinholster’s 3-point acumen was on full display on Friday night at Penn Charter’s sparkling-new Graham Athletics & Wellness Center. The 6-foot-3 guard knocked down four 3-pointers en route to a game-high 23 points to help power the Quakers to a crucial 62-52 win over visiting Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy.

With Penn Charter’s offense sputtering early, Shinholster single-handedly got them going, scoring 12 straight points for his team, including a 9-3 run of his own doing. It started with a four-point play on a trey from straightaway, immediately followed by a strip steal and coast-to-coast layup, then another 3-pointer from the left wing.

Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL

“I feel like we just needed some momentum,” he said. “We’re one of those teams where when we start rolling, we just keep going. This was one of those games where we needed some momentum, some energy, and once I started hitting those 3s, I knew we were going to be cool.”

Penn Charter (15-3, 4-1 Inter-Ac) eventually did ride that momentum, but it didn’t happen immediately. SCH Academy sophomore Ron Brown (13 points) hit three of his four 3-pointers in the second quarter, and the teams went into the half tied at 23. 

The third quarter was a more balanced one for the hosts: Isaiah Grimes, saddled with early foul trouble as the 6-3 guard was tasked with guarding SCH Academy’s 6-9 Alassane Amadou, knocked down two 3-pointers; Trey Shinholster hit his fourth triple, and yet another junior Keith Gee had five of his seven points. 

A four-point PC lead entering the fourth quarter slowly expanded, with the younger Shinholster brother hitting a big triple of his own. By the time Trey collected his last bucket, a driving layup with 1:50 to play, it was a 56-44 lead and the game was in hand.

In the middle of all of it was Penn Charter junior point guard Mark Butler, who finished with 17 points, 10 assists, six rebounds and four steals. Butler was responsible for more than half of his team’s buckets (16-of-42) on his own, then helped seal the game by going 10-of-12 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t want to say [it’s] ‘my time,’ but I like to have the ball in my hands at the end of the game,” Butler said. “My guys trust me, my coaches trust me, so I just want to go out there and do what’s best for the team, whatever that is — making the right kick, making free throws at the end, or getting to the basket.”

Mark Butler (2) had a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists, plus six rebounds and four steals. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Kai Shinholster finished with eight points, while Gee and Grimes added seven apiece as the PC starters accounted for all their scoring. 

Despite a significant size disadvantage, the Quakers limited the damage of Amadou, the Division I prospect with more than a handful of Division I offers, who finished 1-of-7 from the floor for six points, with 11 rebounds (four offensive). The Blue Devils (12-5, 3-2) were led by 15 points from sophomore guard Cam Burns, though they were hampered by 16 turnovers.

The win capped off a great week for Penn Charter coach John Owens, whose wife Rikaida Owens gave birth to their second child and first daughter, Jream Sky Owens, on Wednesday. He gave a ton of credit to his coaching staff — Kenny Hayward, Kenyatta Greene, Chris Hunt and Chris Rodgers — for keeping his team focused while he was at the hospital.

“Those guys, they did their thing this week,” he said. “When I couldn’t be around, Rodgers watched film with the guys. When I couldn’t be around, Kenny and Chris and Kenyatta motivated those guys. I give my coaching staff the credit and I’m truly appreciative of them.”

The win gets Penn Charter to the midpoint of the Inter-Ac season tied atop the league with Malvern Prep, though the Quakers beat the Friars 72-60 at Penn Charter on Jan. 18. PC’s only league loss so far was 52-46 at home to the Haverford School on Jan. 11. 

The Quakers’ next game is a chance for revenge, as they’ll play at the Fords (1-4) on Tuesday.

“Bernie has my number, I’ve never beat Bernie,” Owens said. “He’s a helluva coach, he’s one of the top coaches (I’ve coached against) because he puts his kids in the right places. We’ve got to come ready to play.”

If Penn Charter can win its final five league games, it’ll win the Inter-Ac League outright, its first league title — shared or solo — since Sean Singletary (Virginia) and Rob Kurz (Notre Dame) were seniors back in 2003-04. That Quaker team went 10-0 in the league, the second consecutive year it had done so under Jim Phillips

This year’s squad might not be able to go perfect, but it’ll certainly take a banner. 

“I think we’re rolling right now,” Shinholster said. “We just came off a few good wins, now we have to just finish out our league and get ready for [state] playoffs.”

By Quarter
Penn Charter:    10  |  13  |  19  |  20  ||  62
SCH Academy:   9   |  14  |  15  |  14  ||  52

Shooting
Penn Charter: 16-42 FG (8-18 3PT), 22-30 FT
SCH Academy: 15-50 FG (8-21 3PT), 14-21 FT

Scoring
Penn Charter: Trey Shinholster 23, Mark Butler 17, Kai Shinholster 8, Isaiah Grimes 7, Keith Gee 7

SCH Academy: Cam Burns 15, Ron Brown 13, Darius Isaac 8, Jaren Morton 8, Alassane Amadou 6, Ivan Thorpe 2


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