City of Basketball Love

By Jeremy Goode
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Jordan Ellerbee aspired to be more of a leader during his senior year. Eleven games into the season, he’s certainly living up to his goal.  

The 6-foot-2 combo guard has been a dynamic scorer at St. Joseph’s Prep, and is looking to finish his high school career on a high note. 

In his way? 

The back-to-back PCL champions, Roman Catholic. Not just come February, but on Wednesday night at Bensalem, where the two PCL contenders went head-to-head. The Cahillites led for most of the contest by around six points, but were unable to lay a final dagger to put aways the experienced Hawks.

With the game tied and St. Joseph’s Prep inbounding the ball under Roman’s basket with three-and-a-half seconds left, Ellerbee knew it was time to steal the game. After all, St. Joseph’s Prep had not led once at that point. 

After Ellerbee secured the inbounds pass, he made a quick move and ran baseline, completely shaking his defender to put up a layup at the buzzer, as Prep beat Roman, 40-38. 

How did Ellerbee get there?

“Being in love with the gym and being in love with your team,” Elerbee said. “Being a gym rat is special; you have to fall in love with the work. I love the gym personally. Working out all the time and getting extra hours is never a struggle for me.”

The game winning basket keeps St. Joseph’s Prep undefeated in PCL play at 3-0, while Roman takes their first loss in conference, now at 2-1. 

Ellerbee finished with 20 points, 16 of which occurred in the second half. 

The Florida Gulf Coast University commit mentioned that it is easier for him to play his game knowing he is surrounded by so much talent. After all, Jaron McKie is another senior scorer who is committed to play college hoops at Dayton. Olin Chamberlain Jr. is also a senior guard who can score and run the point guard position.

But for St. Joseph’s Prep head coach Jason Harrigan, it all comes down to who can make a play when it matters most. He turns to Ellerbee often. 

“He does not even have to necessarily take the shot for us,” Harrigan said. “I know that he will be able to make any kind of play because he is a playmaker for us.”

Ellerbee’s playmaking abilities help solidify himself as a leader on the court. His ease at scoring is always recognized by his teammates, but his willingness to take charge on the court through dribbling, passing, and setting a tone through his play sets him apart. 

For Ellerbee, he is pleased to repeatedly make positive plays for his St. Joseph’s Prep team. It is something he has also gotten better at throughout his high school career. 

“I feel like I can score at any time, but also I can see the open man,” Ellerbee said. “So, if they send a double or somebody sends a switch, I can always see the open man. I love involving my teammates throughout the whole game and scoring the ball myself.”

For Harrigan, Ellerbee’s leadership with the ball and distributing the ball has been a major impact on the success of the program. 

“That’s one thing I really challenged him to be; a really great leader,” Harrigan said. “His teammates feed off of him; he has a lot of energy. When he’s up, we’re up. We expect him to lead and he is definitely leading.”

It has been 21 years since Prep won a PCL championship. Back in 2004, Prep, led by head coach Speedy Morris, won their second championship in a row. The last time the Prep won the title before 2003? You have to go all the way back to 1971. 

St. Joseph’s Prep win improves them to 7-4. More importantly, they are hoping the win against Roman Catholic is a statement. While Harrigan was surprised his team only scored 40 points (30 below their season average), he also noted it was important that while their points were down, so were Roman’s. 

The Prep has four players scoring at least 10 points per contest. Going into the game, Ellerbee was leading the team in points per game, averaging 17. Mckie is shortly behind with 16.7. Sophomore guard Mekhi Robertson adds 12 and Chamberlain has been contributing 10. 

When asked what he was thinking about before the game winning basket, Elerbee confidently recalled his process. 

“Take over,” Ellerbee said. “Do whatever the team needs, whether it is finding the open guy or scoring myself. I can score, but I am not just a scorer. I like seeing my teammates score more than scoring myself.”

Leadership. Ellerbee displayed it the play before his buzzer beater when he passed the ball in to McKie for a wide open look, as Roman was able to foul the shooting guard before he could go through the motion of his shot. 

Over the past three years, a lot of work has gone into Ellerbee being confident enough to make a game winning shot at the buzzer against one of the best teams in Philadelphia. He noted that he studied film, offensive and defensive drills to be as complete of a player as he could be.

While the win only counts for one game, Ellerbee believes it could do wonders for the team throughout the season. He just needed to see his final shot go through for a lot of positive imagination to become more realistic.  

“When I scored that last basket, all I could think of is how great Prep will be this season,” he said.

~~~

By Quarter
SJP:  10  |   6   |  10  |  14  ||  40
RC:   10  |  12  |   6   |  10  ||  38

Shooting
Prep: 15-49 FG (4-22 3PT), 6-6 FT
Roman: 14-47 FG (6-16 3PT), 4-6 FT

Scoring
Prep: Jordan Ellerbee 20, Jaron McKie 8, Will Lesovitz 6, Olin Chamberlain Jr. 3, Mekhi Robertson 3

Roman: Sebastian Edwards 13, Tyler Sutton 8, Elijah Guer 7, Shareef Jackson 6, CJ Miller 4