City of Basketball Love

By Mike Gross
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MANHEIM - The April live evaluation weekend began Friday with more than 400 different grassroots teams descending on Spooky Nook for the Live! At the Nook event, which also featured the Select Events P24 and S40 circuits. 

Here’s the first part of our recruiting coverage from the weekend:

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Priyanka Ponnam (2026 | Team Northeast)

Ponnan, a 6-3 center who lives in Pennington, New Jersey, attended the George School as a freshman and sophomore before reclassifying and spending the past two seasons at Blair Academy.

She showed athleticism and classic low-post scoring ability in Northeast’s 77-56 defeat of United NJ Friday, a game for which the courtside seats allotted to college coaches were filled.

Ponnam said she can do face-the-basket, perimeter things, but isn’t often asked to on a team that includes Division I recruits Emily McDonald (ranked 41st in the class of 2026 by ESPN) and Rhylin Fehrenback (offers from St. Bonaventure and Marist).

“My shot has gotten a lot better,’’ Ponnam said. “My three-point shooting has been pretty good, and my perimeter game is, I would say, pretty strong. I’ve always worked on it, even though I’ve always been the tallest kid.’’

Rebounding comes less naturally, especially given her size.

“That’s the thing I have to work on,’’ she said. “A lot of it is working on my body, my conditioning. My leg strength is good, it’s more cardio, being able to contest every rebound.’’

Ponnam is an Ivy League recruit, but has pulled in offers from a number of conferences; Wake Forest offered in February along with schools like Northwestern, Colorado, Rutgers, and more.

“The Ivies are all engaged with me, but it’s a little slow right now,’’ she said. “The portal just closed. Everybody’s just waiting for this live period wanting to play your best at the right time.’’

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Maura Gilroy (2026 | Lady Running Rebels HGSL 17U)

Gilroy is a 6-2 big from Haverford High with the desired set of post-player skills - scoring around the basket, attacking the glass and protecting the rim.

With an eye toward college basketball, she’s working on broadening her game.

“I want to get better at learning how to guard every single kind of player, not just a post player,’’ she said after the Rebels’ 40-39 loss to EEP Basketball of Staten Island, NY.

“My coaches always tell me, defense leads to offense,’’ she said. “Ever since I’ve been little, I’ve been kind of shoved into the block. Over the summer, I want to work on expanding on that.’’

Haverford went 24-7 last season, reaching the Class 6A quarterfinals before losing to eventual finalist Upper St. Clair. The Fords will have some key pieces to replace in the frontcourt in 6-1 Rian Dotsey, a St. Joe’s signee, and 5-11 Natalie Wright, both of whom did a lot of winning in Fords uniforms. That leaves this a big offseason for Gilroy, who seems primed to step into the largest role of her career yet this winter. 

Gilroy is shaping up as a small-college recruit with some requirements. She wants to go into healthcare, perhaps nursing, and wants to stay relatively close to home. So far, she said, she’s been talking to numerous area Division III programs including DeSales, Eastern, Scranton and Neumann.

“I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but I’m definitely looking only at schools that offer a major I like,’’ she said.

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Megan King (2027 | Lady Running Rebels HGSL 16U)

King is a rising junior who played JV and saw some varsity minutes last winter for state 6A champion Perkiomen Valley, by consensus the best regardless-of-class team in the PIAA in 2024.

“We have to fill the void (left by) our seniors,’’ King said after her team lost by a point to the New England Storm Sunday. “They’ve told us they know we can do it, and we believe in ourselves.’’

The void will be sizable, given the graduation of a powerhouse senior class that includes Division I recruits Grace Galbavy (Wake Forest) and Quinn Boettinger (Navy).

“Let’s be honest, it’s going to be hard to build on winning a state 6A championship as a public school,’’ said PV coach John Russo, who assists Downingtown East coach Darren Domsohn with the U16 Rebels.

“Our job as coaches and as kids is to instill the work ethic that those kids had and keep it going, for second grade on up.’’

King is a 5-8 wing/big guard type who seemed comfortable in what was a fast and physical game.

“I know a lot of these girls, and I’m getting to know their games,’’ she said. “I feel like it’ll prepare me a little better to play against them in high school.

“I just make sure I play hard defense. I want to create opportunities for myself and translate what I do here to high school.’’

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Gabriella and Julianna Tropea (2026 | Total Skills)

Twin sisters and rising seniors at Central Bucks South, Gabriella and Julianna are veterans of the spring/summer circuit on one last go-round with longtime friends and teammates.

“I’m just trying to enjoy my last year,’’ said Gabriella. “I don’t want to take anything for granted.’’

The sisters are of a familiar basketball type: They were taller than everyone else at the youth level 5-6 years ago, but topped out at about 5-11. As their peers have caught up physically, they’ve had to develop perimeter skills and round into more complete players.

“I play on the post a lot, but I play on the wing sometimes, too,’’ Julianna said. “Starting around my sophomore year, I started developing my ballhandling and shooting.’’

Both sisters have gotten some interest from Division Two schools in the Pennsylvania Conference, but their recruiting has centered on D-3s in the region, including Elizabethtown, Rowan and DeSales.