City of Basketball Love

By CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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The 2025 edition of the Blue Star High School Invitational took place this Sunday at Jefferson University’s Gallagher Athletic Center, with 24 high-level teams from all over the Northeast coming to play on two courts all day long in front of fans, parents, and college coaches.

Here’s Part 1 of a recruiting notebook featuring prospects we interviewed over the course of the day; CLICK HERE for Part 2:

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Jezelle ‘G.G.’ Banks (2027 | Ursuline Academy, Del.)

Though she’s been a Division I recruit since seventh grade, was a finalist for the USA Basketball U-17 squad this summer as a not-yet-high-school sophomore and is a five-star prospect ranked No. 6 in her class by ESPN, Banks admits she still has some surreal moments in the basketball world. 

That’s what happens when you pick up offers from the likes of South Carolina, LSU and Notre Dame, and get to chat with the likes of Dawn Staley, Kim Mulkey and Niele Ivey, then watch them play each other in prime-time.

“Sometimes I can’t believe it,” Banks said. “(Dawn Staley’s) sitting right in front of me, you’ve got Kim Mulkey, Coach Ivey. All these amazing coaches that you watch on television coming to watch you, to try to get you to add to their village,” she said. “It’s still surreal. I just am, like, ‘I just got off the phone with her.’”

That’s life for the über-talented 5-foot-10 point guard from the First State, who had a scholarship offer from Texas during her seventh grade season and has picked up countless other high-major opportunities since then. She has her pick of colleges: UCLA, South Carolina, Notre Dame and LSU were just her most recent four, a no-brainer representation of her talents and upside. 

She’s shown plenty of her abilities in a couple games in Philadelphia over the last week, first scoring 28 points with seven assists against Audenried Charter and then adding 23 points, five steals and four assists against Cardinal O’Hara. The defending DIAA state champions lost both as part of a brutally difficult start to the schedule, but the Raiders still have ultra-high hopes for the 2024-25 season.

Now that she’s in her third year of varsity hoops and moving steadily towards a planned commitment by the end of the 2026 summer, Banks said she’s starting to really take the collegiate calls and interest more seriously. As a freshman, all the attention was just something extra and exciting; now, she’s starting to actively think about where she’ll play her years beyond Delaware. 

Banks said she’s only taken visits to four or five schools so far, but that’ll change soon.

“It’s starting to get serious to where I’ve got to start looking into schools, building bonds, and seeing which school is the best for me,” she said. “This year, this summer, next year, I’m going to take these visits more seriously and start building these relationships out.”

A terrific ball-handler, passer and outside shooter, Banks said she’s been working on her mid-range game to complement her already-impressive scoring talents. The thing she learned most from her USA Basketball experience, she said, was about continuing to grow from a maturity and leadership standpoint, something she said she’s also been talking to college coaches about, a reminder that under all the talent and hype, she’s still an underclassman in high school.

“I want my teammates to understand from my perspective and if they have any advice they want to tell me,” she said. “I just want to be that leader on the court that they can come to whenever they have questions, and I’ve got answers.” — Josh Verlin

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Sanyiah Washington (2025 | Friends Central)

Sunday’s loss to Fort Erie out of Ontario, Canada did bring some joy for the Phoenix’s versatile senior guard.

Washington sank one of two at the line at the very end of the third quarter, giving her 11 points in the game and 1,000 on the dot for her career. She’s hoping for a similar feeling when it’s time to make her final college decision, the 5-foot-5 guard down to a couple finalists.

“It’s actually going good, I’m not committed yet but I’m looking at a few schools,” Washington said. “I’m looking at Bowie State and Mansfield as my top two.”

Bowie State, located in Bowie, Maryland, is a Division II program in the CIAA while Mansfield, in Mansfield, PA, also competes in Division II as part of the PSAC. Washington had also received offers from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State but ultimately felt the strongest relationship with her now finalists.

“Bowie, they have that family-type environment and Mansfield, I felt really comfortable with the coaches,” Washington said. “As a freshman, I may not play, but I felt like they were  both a place I could build onto what I have so far.”

Washington began her career at MaST Community Charter, even earning First Team All-BAL honors as a sophomore before making the change to Friends Central ahead of her junior season. She knew Phoenix coach Vinny Simpson would be able to put her in a place to make the goal of playing at the next level a reality and surrounding herself with talented teammates would expand her game.

That’s how it’s played out for Washington, who also played travel with K-Low Elite, as she’s been able to play on the ball as a point guard and off the ball as a scorer.

“It was a struggle at first because I had to get used to the better competition,” Washington said.

The senior credited Simpson for helping her understand how to control the game and find her scoring at the right times. Sunday, most of her offensive production came in the second quarter when she went into attack mode and went right at a Fort Erie frontcourt with plenty of size.

Washington laughed and said everyone “gets the same smoke” when it’s her time to turn up and that aggression helped her find her 1,000th career point.

“I had to really go get it because we were playing a good team,” Washington said. “We needed to push, I had to go get it. If somebody’s not picking it up, then you have to help your teammates out and go get it.”

Washington said her conversations with Bowie State have focused a lot on her versatility as a point guard who can also score, something that’s been rewarding to hear. She didn’t have a timeline for a decision, the senior adding she’s comfortable letting the season play out but she’s certain whatever program she chooses will know exactly the kind of player it is getting.

“You just have to be yourself and be comfortable with that,” Washington said. “They already like you, so just be yourself.” — Andrew Robinson

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Emily McDonald (2026 | Long Island Lutheran, N.Y.)

After two years playing for St. Mary’s High School in her hometown of Buffalo (N.Y.), McDonald headed downstate to join powerhouse LuHi, where she’s had to adjust to being just one talented piece on a roster full of them, instead of the do-everything standout she was before. 

The 6-foot-tall wing looked every bit comfortable in her surroundings on Sunday, scoring 13 points for LuHi in a win over Red Bank Catholic (N.J.). She showed off a picture-perfect jump shot, knocking down three 3-pointers, her few misses all only by an inch or two at most. She also didn’t mind banging around inside, and showed she could put the ball on the floor well with both hands to create offense. 

“I kind of play wherever they need me — except the ‘5’, I’m not a ‘5,’” she said. “[I’m working on] just being a three-dimensional player and not just falling in love with the 3, sometimes getting to the mid-range, getting to the basket, distributing. I can get better at everything.”

McDonald might be the first Division I ballplayer in her family, but she won’t be its first collegiate ballplayer. She credits her love of the game to her older brother Chris McDonald, a 6-5 forward and freshman at D-III SUNY-Cortland. 

“I just saw him play growing up and I was like okay, I’ll play, too,” she said. “[There were] a lot of 1-v-1s, a lot of 1-v-1s.”

Her first Division I offer came from hometown University at Buffalo while she was in eighth grade; she didn’t know 

McDonald declined to discuss which specific schools were involved in her recruitment. She posted on social media in the fall and into the winter that she had picked up offers from the likes of North Carolina, Kentucky, Syracuse, Ohio State, Baylor, Illinois, Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin and more. 

In the offseason, she plays with XGenElite, which is merging with Team Northeast, and will play on the Select Events Power 24 circuit. She said she plans on taking more events in the offseason, with no decision forthcoming. She does know what she is — and isn’t — looking for.

“Definitely the culture and that’s a big reason why I came here,” McDonald said. “Having a good relationship with the coaches and the team and just making sure I’m in the right culture. Location doesn’t matter, none of that stuff really matters. It’s just about fit.” — Josh Verlin