City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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NEWTOWN — Just two years ago Gianna Johnson was a bench player at Conwell-Egan still figuring out her game. 

The 6-foot-5 forward knew she had the tools to dominate, but she arrived at George School in the summer of 2022 still trying to figure out how. 

Early in her senior season, things are really starting to click.

The monster outings are piling up game after game for Johnson, who will play at the University of Delaware next year. The latest performance was a 19-point, 11-rebound effort in a home win over Perkiomen School on Wednesday for the undefeated Cougars (5-0).

“It’s been really cool,” Johnson said. “I’ve been working everyday, and I’m glad to see it’s all coming together.”

Johnson, a Levittown native, committed to Delaware at the beginning of the school year, choosing the Blue Hens over her other top choices Lafayette and UCF. 

She’s been on the Division I radar for quite some time with her first offer coming from Morgan State in July 2021. Things turned up a notch after her junior season at George. By the time she finished her final grassroots season with New Heights NYC this summer, about 30 schools at various levels extended scholarship offers.

The Blue Hens, where former Friends League foe Grace Sundback (Westtown) plays, won out.

“Their coaching staff, and team, it was like a family aspect that I really wanted at college,” Johnson said.

“They liked my size. They thought I would bring my aggressiveness and my speed.”

George School head coach La'Keisha Sutton trained Johnson for two years before she became her head coach. She put Johnson through “boot camp” last summer upon her arrival at George to test her commitment.

Johnson passed.

Sutton, assistant coach Tea Brown and Cougars strength coach Tamika Brown have continued to push her. They challenged Johnson to average a double-double in her junior campaign. She finished with 12.0 ppg and 8.2 rpg during a 16-13 season for the Cougars.

This season the bar was raised exponentially: Gatorade State Player of the Year.

Johnson has answered the call, starting with a 41-point, 22-rebound performance in the team’s opener against Hun School. She came into Wednesday averaging close to 30 points and 12 rebounds per game.

“It’s been fun to see G grow and mature because she’s playing with confidence and she’s being dominant and intentional about imposing her will on our opponents,” Sutton said. “That’s a testament to her character and her willingness to get better and also my assistant coaches.”

Johnson’s introduction to basketball came when she joined in games with her father and younger brother Isaiah, who is currently a junior at Conwell-Egan. She’s the tallest in her immediate family though dad (6-4) and mom (6-2) both have some height and Isaiah (6-2) is catching up.

She didn’t play organized basketball until her middle school coach encouraged her to try out. Eighth grade is when playing in college started to become a goal. She spent a season at Harry S. Truman and a season at Conwell-Egan and the desire to get better really took hold of her in the past two seasons with the Cougars.

“I like getting better,” Johnson said. “I like seeing the improvement that I have. That’s what I like about the sport.”

Johnson’s always been the tallest player on the court, both an advantage and challenge at the high school level where it’s easy to grab rebounds and hold the ball high over defenders but just as easy to pick up fouls for simplifying being bigger than everyone else.

Her coaches have told her to “Be big,” this season and stay aggressive regardless of the outcome. 

She has done that, even in the rare occasion when she matched up with someone taller than her. She scored 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a win over TPLS Christian Academy and their 6-foot-7 forward on Dec. 9.

“Last year, she was just always questioning herself and she would get a lot of offensive fouls called on herself, so she would play small,” Sutton said. “But it’s a part of basketball, so we challenged her on being dominant no matter who we’re playing, where we’re playing, who's on the floor with her. We just want her to be dominant and be consistent and she’s done that.”

Teams have started to throw double and triple teams at Johnson more often this season. They haven’t done much to slow her down numbers wise, but she’s figuring out how to use her teammates when teams try to take her away.

Senior guard and co-captain Sophia Martinez leads a group of capable shooters on the perimeter who have benefitted from extra attention on Johnson.

“I’m kicking out to my guards and letting them shoot,” said Johnson, who had to improve her conditioning even more to keep up with the speedy group. “Because (other teams) are taking me away, they’re an option now. I’m reading the defense.”

Along with state player of the year, Johnson has a few other things or her senior year to-do-list. She entered this season with, unofficially, 507 career points across her first three high school seasons, including 349 last season at George. If she continues her monster start, 1,000 is within reach.

Johnson also dunked at practice for the first time this fall. She’d like to try and pull that out in a game if the opportunity presents itself.

They’re things that seemed possible but far away only two years ago.

“It feels amazing,” Johnson said. “It feels like all my hard work has paid off over the years.”