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Germantown Friends' Jordan Dill no ordinary freshman; SCH wins opener

11/26/2022, 7:45pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

Jordan Dill looks plenty comfortable on the floor with his Germantown Friends teammates and they with him, the second-year varsity starter the Tigers’ star guard, a high-scoring 6-foot-1 left-hander with range and bounce. 

After averaging more than 16 points per game a year ago, earning all-Friends’ Schools League honorable mention honors, he’s looking forward to building on that campaign and rounding out his game. It’s a similar mindset and situation to dozens of hoopers all over the area, not to mention across the country, coming off one strong season but with plans for bigger and better things ahead.


Jordan Dill (above) enters his freshman year with over 400 varsity points under his belt. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

So, what makes Dill so special? Well, start with the fact he’s only in 9th grade.

“He’s an incredible talent,” GFS head coach Shawn Werdt said. “I didn’t really think that he was going to do what he did nor contribute as much as he did [last year], then we fell into some injuries and he got thrown out there early in the year — and we couldn’t take him off the court.”

“It was fun, it was fun,” Dill said, “I didn’t know I was going to do all that last year, though, average 17 [points] against basically grown men, I didn’t know I was going to do that. I was just going and playing basketball, playing hard.”

Dill’s a charismatic 15-year-old, playing basketball seriously since his elementary school years, his father Juwan Dill — who played at West Catholic — getting his middle of five children into the sport, encouraging him to go to workouts daily, Jordan dealing with doubts early on and then falling in love with the game.

“My dad told me from a young age, if you’re not having fun with it, it’s not for you,” he said. “Find another sport. Just go out there and have fun.”

Werdt and his staff were impressed by Dill — who lives in the Ogontz neighborhood less than 10 minutes from the GFS campus — when they saw him at one of their middle school summer camps, knew they wanted to get him into their program immediately. Through summer workouts and going into the fall of Dill’s eighth-grade year, Werdt knew he was going to have Dill on varsity, though he figured mostly as a backup. 

Then four-year starter Matt Johnson went down with a back injury, and Dill’s name was called. He responded immediately, a few 20-point games in December, but it wasn’t until January that Dill really started to realize how good he could be. There was a 24-point outing against Westtown, 21 against Academy New Church, 16 against the George School, all of whom boast high-major Division I guard prospects.

“When I had 24 against (Westtown), that just gave me a boost of confidence, I’m like, ‘nobody can mess with me,’” he said. “All the top schools, I was just going at ‘em, going at ‘em.”

A bomber from 3-point range, Dill is a left-handed scorer who’s got no qualms about shooting in any situation, then knows how to attack closeouts and get into the mid-range, or create in 1-on-1 situations from inside or out of the arc, a crafty finisher around the rim with his dominant hand.

Werdt said that Dill’s green light was “any time he stepped across half court,” and he was, at most, half-joking.

“I’ve seen him make crazy shots, sometimes I’ve dumbed things down a little bit just because his talent is so good: just try to get him in space a little bit, let him make a play, go by guys and get to the free-throw line,” Werdt said. “He’s a shot-maker, he’s a play-maker.

“Very rarely will you see me holler at Jordan for a bad shot. Very rarely. There was a guy I coached my second season at GFS, Ray Leon [...] it’s a similar feel for me where Ray might fire off two or three bad shots but you live with it because they very well could go in.

“The only difference is Ray was a senior. Jordan’s a freshman.”

Dill got his freshman year started with a 27-point game at SCH Academy on Saturday afternoon, though the Blue Devils successfully defended their home court, 70-66. He was 4-of-10 from downtown, 9-of-25 overall, coming up with second-chance buckets on a few of those misses, his four offensive rebounds part of seven overall.

Though he’s only a freshman, he’s got more experience than most of the rest of the Tigers’ roster, making him one of their de facto leaders, even at an age when most kids are adjusting to life on the JV squad. Werdt does have a few seniors to lean on as well in forward Amir Staten — who  missed Saturday’s game with an ankle injury — and point guard Jaden Palmer-Waldron, who had 11 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in the loss. Dill doesn’t have to be the loudest voice, but he has to be a voice.


Dill scored 27 points in the first game of his freshman season. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“I’ve got a bigger role as a leader, so it’s different,” he said. “Of course it’s difficult, but I don’t look at it like that, if you look at it like that it’s going to be even more difficult. I just go out and play; it’s basketball, you’re having fun.”

Dill took this past summer off from playing basketball, tendonitis in his knees and other related growing pains meaning it was smarter if he rested up rather than continue the daily grind. But thanks to that 8th grade season, colleges are already starting to talk to Werdt; Werdt and Dill took a visit to see a Towson practice, and Werdt said he’s heard from other CAA and Ivy League schools, not wanting to overload the freshman with thoughts too far down the line but hoping to motivate him and show what could be if he keeps improving. 

As good as the freshman is, he’s far from a finished package, left-hand dominant and just learning how to use his scoring abilities to open up plays for others, still improving defensively, none of it from lack of effort or willingness to learn.

“[I’m working on] getting better with my right hand, of course, because I know teams are going to force me right every single time,” he said, “and being a better teammate. Last year, I was in 8th grade, I wasn’t selfish but I was going to get my buckets, no matter what anybody said. 

“Being a better teammate, and, of course, winning.”

~~~

SCH Academy survives injuries to win its opener

Playing without three members of the top of its rotation, Springside-Chestnut Hill made a fourth-quarter push pay off, making key plays down the stretch for its 70-66 win. 


Patrese Feamster (above) had 20 points on 12 shots in his first-ever varsity game. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Germantown Friends (0-1) led through most of the second and third quarters after the two teams were tied after one, but SCH used a 10-0 run to take a 62-60 advantage with four minutes to play. Then, protecting a 66-63 lead, the Blue Devils got a key charge taken from senior Tommy Andrews and then a layup from Camden Burns to go up five with 33 seconds left, all but sealing the win.

“We were talking a lot of the week, there’s going to be weird adversity moments and this is one of them; we just got them the first game,” SCH coach Julian McFadden said. “Guys being out, we were turning the ball over, we looked out of sync at moments, to them it was more like, hey, this is an example of some games you’ve just got to be able to pull it out, no matter how you pull it out, you’ve just got to be able to pull it out. So that felt good — that felt good for me, at least.”

The Blue Devils, one of the favorites in the Inter-Ac this season, were without 6-9 Marquette commit Alassane Amadou, who’s in his last few days of the concussion protocol, and junior guard Ron Brown III, who’s a few weeks out from his return from a broken arm; sophomore Keni Williams was also absent, his family visiting older brother Ke’Shaun Williams, a wide receiver at Wake Forest.

They got 21 from Burns, who hit three 3-pointers, and 14 points and 10 rebounds from senior Jaren Morton, who had two more fourth-quarter triples, plus 10 points and six rebounds from junior forward Caleb Alston.

While Dill was leading all scorers, SCH Academy had its own impressive freshman making his varsity debut. Patrese Feamster, a 6-3 shooting guard who plays with Team Final, got the start and scored 20 points, shooting 8-of-12 overall and 2-of-4 from the 3-point arc, along with making both of his foul shots.

“I think he’s a talented scorer; I think it’s more for a kid like that, you want them to not force it and still be the guy that they were when they were playing in middle school,” McFadden said. “He let the game come to him, and most of the time when you do that, especially when you’re young, you can get good shots. And he took his time and he made them. Feamster was good, he was really good today.”

 

 

By Quarter

GFS:  17  |  14  |  18  |  17  ||  66
SCH:  17  |   9   |  18  |  26  ||  70 

Shooting
GFS: 23-54 FG (7-19 3PT), 13-28 FT
SCH: 26-57 FG (8-19 3PT), 10-12 FT

Scoring
GFS: Jordan Dill 27, Darius Frazier 16, Jaden Palmer-Waldron 11, Jesse Mullins 10, Caleb Hess 2
SCH: Camden Burns 21, Patrese Feamster 20, Jaren Morton 14, Caleb Alston 10, Tommy Andres 3, Ryan Kull 2


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