City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — There were literally thousands of girls, from all over the country, from every conceivable age group, spread out over what seemed like endless makeshift basketball courts through the Atlantic City Convention Center on Friday at the Atlantic City Showcase.

Here is a recruiting notebook featuring a handful of area players on the first day of the three-day AAU event covering 16U and 17U age groups: 

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Select Events Atlantic City Coverage
Standouts | Notebook Pt. 1 | Notebook Pt. 2 | Notebook Pt. 3 

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Sam Wade (2025 | Team PA S40 17U)

A four-year starter at Germantown Academy, Wade will be entering Perkiomen School next fall as a post-graduate. She has been talking to numerous Division II and III schools that she did not want to presently name, but feels another year of school may give her an opportunity to be looked at by some high-end D-II local programs.

Because she will turn 18 this summer, she is a year younger than her senior counterparts at Germantown Academy, and it is why she is still eligible to play another summer of AAU ball. Last summer, her growth as a player was stunted by a nagging sprained ankle from last April to August. This spring, she is healthy and ready to show college coaches that she can score.

The previous weekend at Spooky Nook, she hit five-of-five three-pointers and six-for-seven threes in another game.

On Friday, she showed her deft shooting touch once again, scoring 20 points for Team PA S40 17U against Connecticut Basketball HGSL. She never scored in the 20s this past season for the Patriots. But her role in high school was far different than it currently is for her AAU team. At GA, she was counted on to give up a piece of her game for the overall good of the team, and it worked in getting Germantown Academy a share of the girls’ Inter-Academic League championship with Penn Charter and Notre Dame Academy.

“But I need to get faster to improve my game, and right now, I feel really good, my ankle is good and I’m healthy,” Wade said. “The Perkiomen coach believes in me, and I wish I got to shoot more at GA. But we had so many great players. I had a responsibility to my teammates.

“This summer, I want to improve my on-ball defense, shooting, and I have been working with my trainer to work on my pull-up game. I like Perkiomen School, which will be a one-year post-graduate year and it gives me an opportunity to keep playing basketball with the chance a college will see me.”

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Sophia Topakas (2026 | Mid-Atlantic Magic 16U)

The 5-foot-7 starting guard for Archbishop Wood found her Mid-Atlantic Magic AAU team in a struggle with Team DAPA HGSL on the first day, though Topakas played very well, showing a good shooting range and coming up with a few steals as the Magic made a furious late charge that came up short.

For Topakas, this summer looms big. All she has known at Wood is winning, a member of the four-time defending PIAA Class 5A state champions, and ninth overall for Wood, the most of any girls’ program in PIAA history. 

She said her goals this summer is to work on her spacing to create more open shots, and her ballhandling. She also is aware she will be facing a new role this coming season at Wood.

“I will need to step up and score more this year, because we lost a lot of important seniors,” said Topakas, who was the Vikings’ starting two-guard last season. “Ava Renninger (Fairleigh Dickinson) was our point guard last year, and I will probably have to handle the ball more this year, but I don’t know if I will be the set point guard. I don’t right now, if we will have one. We’ll see.

“We are going to the Best of Maryland Tournament in later June, and we are already having open gyms. Everyone is serious is about getting a fifth-straight state championship. Physically, I know I will need to break through new different levels.”

She said she has started weight training seriously for the first time, and applying more time to improving her cardio. She will be entering her junior year aiming to threepeat again as Catholic League, District 12 and state champs. She has received some attention from Eastern University recently, based on her performance at a recent camp.

“Winning and knowing the hard work that went into it is motivating,” Topakas said. “That means pushing through to new limits and getting stronger. Getting to higher levels will get me ready for the more fast-paced games. Past summers I would run, but I know I will need to start doing that more now.”  

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Quick Hits
 

— Elle Johnson (2025 | Lady Runnin’ Rebels HGSL 17U) is getting attention from numerous Division II and Division III schools, and she has visited Catholic University and Rider. The 5-foot-10 Unionville rising senior guard’s goal this summer is to improve her shot. 

“I will be moving to more of a point guard spot senior year, and I have been working out, doing more work on my ballhandling, along with my shot,” Johnson said. “This spring has gone okay, so far. I was hoping to do a little better, but I am doing well.”

— Cameron Crowley (2025 | Lady Runnin’ Rebels HGSL 17U) said she is getting some college attention from some Division III schools that the rising senior did not want to mention. 

“I want to improve my shot, even though I’m the point guard,” said the 5-foot-6 North Penn guard, a three-year varsity starter. “I want to open my game up more, and AAU has helped me do that, allowing me to shoot a little more. The spring has been good, and I have been able to get more time in to work on my game. But right now, there is a lot of D-III interest. We’ll see where it goes.”

— Julia Lewis (2025 | Lady Runnin’ Rebels HGSL 17U) has just begun to talk to some schools, which she did not want to mention. The Cherry Hill West 5-foot-8 rising senior guard said most of the attention is coming from Division III schools. She is a three-year starter who will be the starting point guard. She has been lifting for the first time seriously. 

“I’m hoping to get stronger this summer, play against better competition to help me improve for my high school season and get better looks from colleges,” she said. “I have worked more this spring than I have in the past.”  

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.