City of Basketball Love

By David Comer (@dhcomer-cobl)
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GWYNEDD VALLEY — Gwynedd Mercy University coach John Baron remembers the game well. His team was playing at home against Cabrini University, and an undersized Cabrini guard who he did not recruit out of high school was dominating the game. 

“How’d we miss that kid?” he remembers asking himself.

That kid was Aquil Stewart. And that day — January 21, 2023 — Stewart finished with 34 points, six rebounds and three assists in leading Cabrini to a 73-69 win over Gwynedd Mercy.

“I was unbelievably impressed,” Baron said.

These days, Baron is impressed by Stewart on a daily basis, now as Stewart’s coach. Stewart transferred to Gwynedd Mercy following the 2022-2023 season, and is now in his second year with the Griffins.

On Tuesday night at the Griffin Complex on the Gwynedd Mercy campus, the speedy 5-foot-9, 150-pound Stewart helped lead his team to an 80-48 non-conference win over Juniata. The senior finished with 18 points, three rebounds, two steals and one assist in just 21 minutes.

“I’m really proud of him because he really respects the whole stat sheet,” Baron said. “He has learned - and I’m so proud of him for this - that there are so many stats on the sheet other than scoring.”

Stewart is still scoring. The senior is now averaging 17.2 points per game - up from 10.5 points per game last season - in a team-best 23.2 minutes this season, but he also already has games with seven assists and six assists.

Stewart’s offensive game - he has scored over 1,000 points in his college career - has evolved from his days at Cabrini. He is now more of a shooter than a slasher and more of an off-guard than a point guard.

“It’s been a two-year transformation,” Baron said. “He’s realized he’s a really good shooter. He’s really bought in - take what you do well and utilize it.”

Stewart’s statistics this season back that up. The Philadelphia native and Girard College High School graduate is shooting an impressive 60.4% from the field, including 51.6% from 3-point range. He was 6-of-11 from the field (3-of-6 from deep) against Juniata.  

“I feel like coming here has made me a completely better player in all aspects of the game,” Stewart said.

Eleven different players scored for the Griffins on Tuesday, led by Shawn Summers Jr.’s 20 points, Stewart’s 18, and former Norristown High star D.J. Johnson’s 9. Gwynedd Mercy has scored 80 or more points in each game during its 5-0 start - its first 5-0 start since the 2003-2004 season - but on Tuesday night, its defense dominated. 

The Griffins, using a combination of zone and man-to-man defenses with a variety of traps mixed in, forced Juniata into 27 turnovers, including multiple shot clock violations, and limited the Eagles to 33.9% shooting for the game. Gwynedd Mercy held Juniata scoreless until 11:05 remained in the first half and built a 32-4 lead with 2:34 left in the first half. The Griffins led 36-11 at halftime and by as many as 39 in the second half.

Juniata, which fell to 0-6 on the season, beat Gwynedd Mercy in each of the last three seasons. However, this year the Eagles have a young team with only one senior on the roster. Juniata has several ties to the Philadelphia area. Sophomore guard Ty Kocak, a 6-foot-2 guard and Pennsbury High grad, is the Eagles’ leading scorer at 10.0 points per game; he finished with 7 points - all in the second half. Freshmen Morris Ivey (Conwell Egan), William Littles Jr. (Shipley School), and Bowen Gugger (Central Bucks West) all played, as did sophomore Jack Edwards (Strath Haven). Senior Tyler Lapetina, a senior out of Perkiomen Valley, started the first three games of the season but has missed the last three.

On Tuesday night, the Gwynedd Mercy defense never let Juniata get comfortable. 

“Our defensive philosophy is we want to speed teams up,” Stewart said. “Put a lot of pressure on them. … We don’t want their best players shooting; we want to make their other players shoot. We like giving a lot of looks. We want to confuse the offense.”

Baron credits his team’s stingy defense to his players “buying in” and assistant coach Brian Corrado, who is in his fourth season on Gwynedd Mercy’s coaching staff and serves as what Baron called the team’s “defensive coordinator.”

“I trust him a lot,” Baron said.

Corrado was pleased with the team’s effort last night; he said the Griffins finished with 47 deflections and 11 “kills” - a “kill” is achieved when his team gets three consecutive stops, and the goal is to have 8 “kills” each game.

“We mixed up a lot of different looks,” said Corrado, a Lansdale native with 28 years of coaching experience at the high school level. “A lot of credit goes to the guys for buying in. They really executed well.”

Baron is happy with the start to the season, a year after his team finished 17-10 and as runner-up in the Atlantic East Conference. Gwynedd Mercy was picked to finish second in this season’s AEC preseason poll. 

“We haven’t been undefeated at Thanksgiving in a long time,” said Baron, who is in his 22nd season leading the Griffins and last night improved his career record to 393-193 - an impressive 200 games over .500. He has led his team to the NCAA Division III tournament six times. This year, if the defense continues to play as it has early on and Stewart continues to flourish on a balanced offense, another trip to the NCAA tournament could be in store.

Looking ahead, Baron should pick up his 400th career win in the next several weeks. Stewart will play his final games at a place that he said has welcomed him since his first day as he continues to defy the odds - something he has been doing on the basketball court since he was a 5-foot-4, 97-pound freshman who helped lead his high school team to the PIAA Class A state championship game. 

Stewart is still usually the smallest player on the court. He was again on Tuesday.

“Being one of the smallest guys on the floor since I’ve been playing basketball as a kid, I always say it’s heart over height,” he said. “Even though I’m the smallest player on the court, I still have the biggest heart.”

Baron recalls that night nearly two years ago when Stewart single-handedly led his former team, Cabrini, to a rare win over Gwynedd Mercy.

“I regretted not recruiting him,” Baron said, “but I’m glad to have the chance to coach him now.”