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2014-15 CoBL All-City High School Awards

03/30/2015, 2:23pm EDT

By Staff

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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Another thrilling high school basketball season is in the books, and it was a wild one in the city of Philadelphia. District 12, which is made of of catholic and public schools in Philadelphia, swept the PIAA playoff titles with the PCL winning three of the four championships (AA, AAA and AAAA).

Also, Neumann-Goretti’s six-year run of Philadelphia Catholic League titles came to an end at the hands of Roman Catholic and many area seniors played their final years of high school hoops before heading off to colleges next fall.

Here are the awards for the high school's in Philadelphia for the 2014-15 season:

Player of the Year
Derrick Jones--Sr., Archbishop Carroll
Many will remember Jones and Archbishop Carroll coming up a few points short of a state championship, and the 6-foot-7 UNLV commit missing 11 free throws in his high school finale, but the rest of his stat line on that Saturday afternoon in Hershey spoke wonders to the type of season Jones had.

He almost single-handedly brought Carroll and coach Paul Romanczuk a state title over the reigning champions, Neumann-Goretti, tallying 30 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks while playing all 32 minutes.

On the year, Jones averaged 17.4 ppg in Catholic League play, second to only Chris Clover’s 21.9. The Patriots again fell in the PCL semifinals and just short of their ultimate goal, but they would have been nowhere near those heights without the play of Jones, who committed to UNLV before his senior season.

Jones was dominant down the stretch for Carroll, posting at least 20 points in his final 10 games in a high school uniform.

All-City First Team
Tony Carr--Jr., Roman Catholic
--The do-it-all point guard helped lead Roman Catholic to both PCL and PIAA titles. With a bevy of Division I offers already to his name, Carr should see his recruiting stock skyrocket this summer.
Chris Clover--Sr., St. Joe’s Prep
--The future St. Joe’s Hawk made a strong case for the POY award, scoring double figures in all but one PCL game, averaging a league-best 21.9ppg. He scored a career-high 37 points in an overtime win against La Salle College HS in his final regular season game.
Ahmad Gilbert--Sr., Constitution
--Gilbert finished off an illustrious high school career playing some of his best basketball in leading Constitution to another state title. The George Mason commit scored 31 in the state semis and then 28 in the final.
Quade Green--Soph., Neumann-Goretti
--Green quickly answered the question of how fast he could step in and replace the talent Neumann-Goretti lost and dominated the PCL all year. The future high-major guard averaged 16 a night, good for fifth in PCL play. Green scored a team-best 553 points to help lead the Saints to a PIAA Class AAA state championship.
Derrick Jones--Sr., Archbishop Carroll
--Not much else needs to be said about Jones then what was already written above. The PCL and its fans will miss watching this talented, high-flying wing in packed area gyms. Had the ability to impact the game on both ends with almost effortless ability.

All-City Second Team
Luke Connaghan--Sr., Archbishop Wood
--The PCL’s third-leading scorer (17.1 ppg) finished off an impressive high school career with 457 points on the season. Connaghan scored a season-high 32 in a five-point loss to Neumann-Goretti in January.
Samir Doughty--Sr., Math Civics & Sciences
--There were rumors before the season that the St. John’s commit would transfer high school’s for his final year, and MCS should be glad he didn’t. The elite scoring guard scored in double figures in every league and playoff game, en route to a District 12-best 685 points on the year (24.5 ppg).
Sammy Foreman--Sr., Martin Luther King
--King missed out on winning a state championship by losing to Roman in the final, but the mere fact it was there can be attributed largely to Foreman, who averaged a shade over 14 ppg.
Stevie Jordan--Jr., Conwell-Egan
--The emergence of Jordan helped guide Conwell-Egan to its first ever state championship. The talented forward scored 21 points in the final game against Aliquippa and averaged 16,8 ppg on the year.
Kimar Williams--Sr., Constitution
--The recent Florida International commit dazzled in his final year of high school, averaging a team-high 16.9 ppg in Pub league play while being the catalyst to the Generals’ high-powered attack.

All-City Third Team
Charlie Brown--Sr., George Washington
--The Pub’s ‘B’ division doesn’t get much notoriety, but Brown (16.1 ppg) was worth the price of admission for Washington’s 12-0 league campaign.
Nazeer Bostick--Jr., Roman Catholic
--Roman’s “X-Factor” scored a team-high 23 points in the PCL final and was dominant on the boards all year.
Lamarr Kimble--Sr., Neumann-Goretti
--Kimble quietly played the role of facilitator while letting players like Quade Green and Zane Martin emerge as scoring threats around him. The SJU-bound point guard still scored 14.5 ppg, third on NG’s roster.
David Krmpotich--Sr., La Salle College HS
--The Colgate-bound forward led La Salle in scoring (13.7 ppg) and scored 22 in a PCL semifinal loss to Neumann, as he helped push the Explorers to the brink of an upset.
Daron Russell--Soph., Imhotep Charter
--Russell came on strong at the end of the year, leading Imhotep to a Public League title and almost a state championship. He scored 19 in a comeback win over Constitution in the Pub final, and then dropped 27 on Neumann in the state semi’s.

All-City Honorable Mention
Jihad Barnes (Sr., Philadelphia Electric), David Beatty (Soph., Archbishop Carroll), Izaiah Brockington (Soph., Archbishop Ryan), Tommy Funk (Jr., Archbishop Wood), DaShon Giddings (Sr., Del-Val Charter), Gemil Holbrook (Sr., Roman Catholic), Zane Martin (Jr., Neumann-Goretti), Jabri McCall (Jr., Martin Luther King), LaPri McCray-Pace (Jr., Conwell-Egan), DeAnte Robinson (Sr., Imhotep Charter), Josh Sharkey (Jr., Archbishop Carroll), D’Andre Vilmar (Soph., Roman Catholic), Kitt Najee Walls (Sr., La Salle HS), Shawn Witherspoon (Sr., La Salle HS)

Coach of the Year
Chris McNesby, Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic returned plenty of talent from a team that got knocked out of the second round of the state playoffs last year. And under the guidance of McNesby, the Cahillites returned with a staunch attitude and hunger.

But, then they lost Hartford-bound senior TreVaughn Wilkerson to a season-ending injury early in the year.

All they did next was run through the PCL to an 11-2 regular season campaign. Then McNesby became the first coach not named Carl Arrigale to win a PCL title down at the Palestra in February, first scoring a come-from-behind win against Carroll in the semifinal before upending Neumann-Goretti in the final - ending the Saints’ run of six straight PCL titles.

But that wasn’t enough.

McNesby then refocused his group and, behind the play of Tony Carr, Nazeer Bostick, Gemil Holbrook, Manny Taylor and more, led the Cahillites to their first ever PIAA Class AAAA state championship - finishing the year with a 29-2 record and a USA Today Top 25 national ranking.