City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2024-25 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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This is it. Carryn Easley and Amya Scott know it. The pair of singular 5-foot-5 Neumann-Goretti senior guards grew up together and know what it is like to win a PIAA state championship. Regrettably, they also know what it is like curled up in the backseat of a car crying on the way home after a PIAA state playoff loss the last two years.

They are on their “bookend tour” this season.

As freshmen, they won the 2022 Class 3A state championship, behind star guard Mihjae Hayes, now a redshirt junior at Virginia State. The last two years the Saints were knocked out in the second round of the PIAA Class 4A state playoffs by Wyomissing and Albany-bound center Amaya Stewart, Easley’s K-Low Elite 17U AAU teammate.

Last season, the Saints finished 19-7 overall and 8-3 in the Catholic League.

Saints’ coach Andrea Peterson, entering her 11th year, has installed a new offensive system. The Saints have always been fun to watch, led by Easley and Scott, but Peterson has a team that has far more depth than it has had in recent years.

Scott and Easley have been the little engines churning the machine, though they have been getting considerable help from a budding sophomore star in 5-6 guard Regina Baker.

The Scott-Easley-Baker trio will be joined this season by 5-8 junior guard Kamora Berry, 5-10 freshman center Chrisette King, 5-5 senior guard twins Arianna and Gianna Meeks, 5-7 junior guard Zion Coston, 5-7 freshman guard Stella Kolenova and 5-2 freshman guard Chloe Kham, the Saints’ future who will inherit command of the offense when Scott and Easley graduate.     

Peterson now has some size in King, who is athletic and comes with a twinge of attitude who will not be pushed around, and a team that could go 10 deep.

Scott and Easley have improved, and Baker has made stunning leaps in her game since last season, along with being physically stronger than a year ago.

Add that mix with the new offense and good things could be ahead for Neumann-Goretti this season.

“A lot of games got lost last year when we stood around watching Carryn and Mya,” said Peterson, who is nine wins away from 200 career coaching victories. “We needed to move the ball and have more people involved. It is something we talked about last year, spreading the floor more, because we got stagnant watching Carryn and Mya and a lot of one-on-one. We want to relieve them and we have Regina, who is emerging.”

It will take time for the Saints to fully grasp the new system. But they have made great strides. In a recent fall ball weekend game against defending Inter-Academic League champion Notre Dame, the Saints rotated the ball better than they have in any year Scott and Easley ran the offense.

They were not completely dependent on Scott and Easley, and hardly anyone on the floor could keep up with Baker, who already has received numerous Division I offers and the list is growing.

Scott and Easley like the new offense, and both admit they are still in the learning stages of completely mastering it. They both also realize that they will be giving up a portion of their games for the greater good of the team.

“It’s about winning,” Easley said. “The floor is spaced out and everyone is getting a touch. I like the offense, because it creates better opportunities for me, Mya and Regina. We also have a big, which is something we never had here in three years. I feel like we could be scary this year for a lot of people.

“I feel that confident that in February 2025, we will be talking at the Palestra. My shot has improved since last year, which may force teams to come out on me. That opens the inside, and allows Regina, Mya and me to drive more.”

Baker, who played with some apprehension as a freshman, is far more assertive. She is moving better off the ball, and she is ready to take on more leadership responsibility.

Defense was a priority this summer.

“I need to talk more on defense, and communication was something I worked on this summer,” Baker said. “I want to be more aggressive. We can be a team that goes three-for-three (Catholic League, District 12, and PIAA titles). We need to stay aggressive and not let things get to our heads.”

That is where Scott and Easley will play a greater role.

They have been through the wars. They have played in the Palestra. They know the heat of February and March basketball. It also helps that they are settled, Easley will be attending Fordham and Scott will be going to Delaware State.

“That’s a huge help,” Scott said. “I can sit back and have fun my senior year, throwing all my attention into getting back to the state championship and winning. That is the one main priority. I’m talking more, and we have a new offense. We’ll be moving around more. It will be tough for teams to defend us. We still need to talk more on defense and we cannot get mad when things do not go our way.

“I’m ready to speak up. I want to win. Carryn and I won a state championship our freshman year. We are a little team and people underestimate us. We like that. With Chrisette, we have someone we can go to inside. It makes our job easier. We are good enough this year to win everything.”   

It would be a bookend fairytale finish for the pair of four-year starting seniors who put their brand on the program. This season will not be easy for Peterson when it ends, no matter if it ends in Hershey at the PIAA state finals, or on the path to a PIAA state championship.

“Carryn and Mya are my girls, I watched them grow up into mature young ladies and they will both become 1,000-point scorers this year, which is rare to have two seniors do what they have done,” Peterson said. “It will be emotional, and it does not matter what stage it is on when they play their last game. Those two have left their mark on this program. It would be great if they do it with another state championship.”

For Easley and Scott, it would be the only way to go out.

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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 BlueSky here.