City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The Donofrio semifinals are set.

Tuesday night at the Fellowship House was the second night of the 2025 Donofrio Classic quarterfinals, with two high-level games finalizing the matchups for Wednesday, which set up Thursday’s finale.

Here’s a report from the evening; CLICK HERE to visit CoBL’s Donofrio Classic coverage homepage:

Game One: K-Low Elite 121, Positive Image White 103

A K-Low Elite group that has looked like a serious title contender ever since its first-round win a couple weeks back kept it rolling again in a battle of two local grassroots programs, as Positive Image White’s roster was entirely players from the BW Elite program. 

K-Low Elite, which is almost entirely made up of last year’s 17U squad with a couple underclassmen in the mix, has been getting stellar play all tournament from Hill School senior Jacob Meachem (Bucknell), Cristo Rey senior Devin Booker (George Mason), SCH Academy senior Keni’ Williams (ESU) and Perkiomen School senior KJ Cochran (Santa Clara), and the quartet didn’t disappoint in the quarterfinals. Meachem scored 20 of his 26 in the first half as K-Low Elite opened up a 20-point gap midway through, while Williams (23 points), Booker (19 points) and Cochran (29 points) helped K-Low close strong after Positive Image made it competitive late. 

Leading the way for Positive Image with 25 points (five 3’s) was Friends’ Select senior Jalen Chiles, followed closed by 23 points from West Catholic senior Saaid Lee (Salem CC). Abington Friends wing Kamani Healey (16 points) and Penn Charter’s T.J. Bryson (15 points), a Widener commit, both hit three 3-pointers as part of their evenings to round out the players in double digits. 

K-Low Elite will play Marathon Sport in Wednesday night’s semifinals at 7 PM. 

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Game Two: Team Awesome 118, Hunting Park I 93
A Team Awesome squad put together by Toomey Anderson and coached by Perkiomen School’s John Caldera took home the Donofrio title a year ago. Some of the pieces look different but Anderson and Caldera have a squad with ties to St. Joe’s Prep, Perk School, Camden and the Lehigh Valley that announced itself as a title contender once again Tuesday night.

Manny Joe-Samuel (Camden) poured in 40 points as the reigning champions rolled in the second half on the way to Wednesday’s semifinal round. Joe-Samuel, who had 21 of his 40 in the first half, helped Team Awesome to a 53-43 halftime lead. Hunting Park got 26 points from Father Judge senior Kevair Kennedy and 25 from Cheltenham sophomore Kamal Mason and crept back within 10, 77-67, with 11:35 on a putback dunk by Judge senior Everett Barnes.

However, Joe-Samuel, who made nine triples on Tuesday night, kept the hot hand after the break with 19 points, and Perkiomen School senior Hayden Johnson came alive in the second half, scoring 17 of his 21 after the break to lead the Team Awesome charge down the stretch.

Gabe Tanner (Perkiomen School) added 15 points and Jaron McKie (St. Joe’s Prep) scored 14 points for Team Awesome, which will play Flocco’s at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the semifinal.

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Widener wins out for Penn Charter’s T.J. Bryson

Midway through the season, a whole pack of area Division III programs had their eyes on Penn Charter’s T.J. Bryson. 

What they didn’t all have was a man on the inside. Widener did, in the form of Penn Charter alum Keith Gee, a sophomore guard on the Pride. And while the Chester school already had a lot going for it in Bryson’s eyes, a friend on the roster who could show him around and who he could trust proved to be an additional asset.

“When I went on my visit with him, (Gee) showed me the ropes and everything, showed me what I should do, what I shouldn’t do,” Bryson said. “Really just got me into Widener, for real.”

So Bryson committed to Widener and head coach Chris Carideo back in mid-February, choosing the Pride out of a pack that also included TCNJ, Wilkes, Scranton and more. They were all interested in a 6-3 combo guard/wing who had played a big role on one of the area’s top private school teams the last few years, the Quakers going unbeaten in the Inter-Ac this year for the first time since 2003-04. 

Bryson never had to be a star for Penn Charter, not on a team that already featured classmates Jake West (Northwestern), Matt Gilhool (LSU) and Kai Shinholster (Minnesota). His role was to hit open shots, play defense and rebound, with the occasional take to the basket when the situation called for it. 

The Donofrio Classic is a chance for Bryson to show more of what he can do with the ball in his hands, skills that he’s flashed more in the offseason for Penn Charter and with BW Elite on the Hoop Group circuit the last few years. 

“In school I wasn’t really on the ball that much, so here I’m able to do that a little bit more, so that’s definitely a great opportunity for me to show what I’m capable of doing,” he said. “It’s been a fun ride [with BW Elite]. I love all the guys on the team, I’m just happy they were able to bring me back for another year, run it again for Donofrio. It was definitely fun while it lasted.”

Bryson said he plans to study mechanical engineering at Widener, having taken an engineering class at Penn Charter where he got to work with a 3D printer for the first time. On the court, he’ll be joining a program coming off an uncharacteristic down season, 7-18 overall (5-9 MAC Commonwealth); the year before, the Pride went 24-5 (12-2) and were in the D3Hoops Top 25 most of the season, finishing in the NCAA Sweet 16. 

Six seniors graduate, including the team’s three leading scorers and minute-getters. There will be a window for Bryson to earn a role as a freshman, but he’ll have plenty of players ahead of him vying for those minutes as well. 

“(Carideo) said they were looking for some guards, they said I fit that position, it seems like I’ll come in and get the opportunity to play,” he said. “[I’m going to be working on] all the things I’ve been doing — ball-handling, shooting, they shoot a lot of 3s so that’s definitely something I’ve been doing.” — Josh Verlin

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GFS record-setter Dill ready for big summer with Philly Pride

Jordan Dill expected to be a spot-up shooter off the bench for Germantown Friends as an eighth grader in 2021-22. Then one game into the season an injury to one of the team’s seniors and a meeting with then-coach Shawn Werdt changed the trajectory of his high school career.

“I’ll never forget it. Coach Shawn, he called me in the office, and he was like, ‘Jordan, it’s time.’ And I was like, ‘It’s time for what, coach?’”

Dill was in the starting lineup the next game against Episcopal Academy and recalls hitting his first three on a hot-shooting night that saw the then eighth-grader score about 20 points, the first of the type of performance that have become routine in the four years since.

Dill had 1,000 points before the end of his freshman season at GFS, and surpassed the 2,000 mark this season as a junior, breaking the Tigers’ all-time scoring record in the process.

The 6-foot-1 guard surpassed 1990 GFS grad and Villanova star Jonathan Haynes (2,022) in a win over Shipley to become the program’s career scoring leader, finishing the season at 2,079 with still his senior year to go.

“It still feels surreal,” Dill said. “The 1,000 points still feels surreal. Now I’m going into the gym and seeing my name right there, and I’m still playing, it’s a blessing. I thank God everyday. I just gotta keep working because it’s going to get harder and harder and harder.”

Dill is aware of his reputation as a scorer and enters the grassroots season looking to polish off and showcase his playmaking at the guard position.

“The most important thing is being a better leader, like a true point guard,” Dill said. “Everybody knows I can score. Now, it’s time for me to get my guys involved and really just focus on that more because at the next level that’s what I’m going to do.”

He spent last summer with Baltimore-based Team Melo’s 16U EYBL team and will stay local this summer with Philly Pride’s 17U squad on the Under Armour circuit. 

A bone bruise in his knee suffered in early February kept Dill out for the last few games of the GFS season, but he returned to the court in late March before the first UAA Session in Kansas City from April 10-14 and is excited to play with the group this summer.

“It’s just the guys that I grew up with, and it’s our last ride, so we want to do it together,” Dill said. — Owen McCue

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Chiles hopes to have set path at Friends Select

When Jalen Chiles was a freshman at Imhotep Charter, he had a handful of terrific role models to look up to, tutored by Rahmir Barno and Ahmad Nowell, specifically, in the Panthers’ backcourt.

After transferring to Friends Select as a sophomore and spending the last three seasons as one of the Falcons’ top players, Chiles made sure he paid those lessons forward in his final high school season, taking eighth grader Elliot Lester under his wing.

“Just being more mature. I was more vocal this year, and we had younger guys for our team that came in,” Chiles said of his senior year. “LIke we had an eighth grader, Elliot Lester, who’s coming in, going to be a ninth grader next year. I think I left a great impact for him. I think he really learned a lot from me, and I was hard on him in practice and JV games, so I think he’ll be great coming up.”

“I took from (learning from Barno and Nowell) and took that advantage to teach Elliot, so he could come up and be great. I want him to lead the team and keep the pride going for Friends’ Select,” he added.

Chiles had plenty to share after an accomplished career at Friends Select. He was part of a core that helped the Falcons escape the FSL basement over the last several years, heartbreaking defeats in the FSL and PAISAA playoffs spoiling some team goals.

He was a first team All-FSL selection for the Falcons as a senior, and hit on an individual goal he had on his to-do list for a long, long time when he reached the 1,000-point milestone in a win over Friends’ Central on Jan. 21.

“Hitting 1,000, it was one of my goals growing up, seeing other guys do it like Fatts Russell and one of my friends Justin Edwards,” Chiles said. “Seeing them score 1,000 points, it made me want to really get it and achieving it was a goal of mine. I was thinking about it the whole season, and when I finally hit it, it was like I achieved something for the first time.”

Chiles said his college interest has mostly been from the JUCO level as of late, as he’s still waiting to make his decision about the next level.

However, he saw improvements in his game this season, noting how he got better catch-and-shoot shot makerseason and got stronger taking the ball to the hoop and finishing with his offhand. — Owen McCue
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Quick Hits

— Owen Coughlin (2025 | Friends Select) arrived at Friends Select in 2023-24 after starting his career at Wissahickon, reclassifying to the Class of 2025 to work on his game.

The extra year seemed to pay off as the 6-foot-8 forward noticed his game took some strides for the Falcons in 2024-25.

“I feel like I just got way more aggressive because my junior year I was really just sticking to shooting,” Coughlin said. “I got way more in the paint, rebounding was my focus.”

Teammate Jalen Chiles concurred with his assessment.

“What I didn’t see his junior year, he got to the basket a lot,” Chiles said. “He finished more. He was more aggressive, and he rebounded better, and he played defense this year. … I think Owen really grew, and showed growth, and he used his voice more, which is something he didn’t normally do.”

Coughlin said he’s looking around at colleges, mentioning the Division II and JUCO levels as the routes he’s looking to pursue.

“They’re really interested in my shooting and just my ability to defend ‘1’ through ‘5’,” Coughlin said.

— Saaid Lee (2025 | West Catholic) is headed to Salem (N.J.) Community College next year, joining a growing contingent of local talent heading across the river to play for former Franklin Learning Center star Mike Green. Green, who played at Towson and Butler before a 12-year professional career overseas, got to Salem two years ago, and had quite a few Philly players on his roster this year. 

But getting Lee, a starter on West Catholic’s PIAA 3A state championship team, is big for Green and Salem CC, which also recently landed Dobbins Tech senior Jurrell Little. Lee had a strong season for the Burrs, playing a mentor role to a young group that got better throughout the season and won the program’s second state title just a little over two weeks ago with a come-from-behind win over South Allegheny.

“Went out a winner, won a state championship [...] very few people get to do that,” he said. “It feels good to be a winner, though.

“I just learned how to take control [this season], really talk more,” the 6-1 guard added. “I’m a quiet guy, so I had to learn how to be more vocal, how to be more dominant with the younger guys. Probably around the live period, in the summertime, that’s when it really felt better, being able to talk to them and everybody responded well in a good way.”