City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
--

Germantown Academy junior Evan-Eric Longino says he is adjusting to a new position on the basketball court.

What that position is, well….that’s a little less clear.

At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Longino has been a Swiss-Army Knife for the Patriots since his freshman year, causing problems both inside and out with his strong frame and ability to bully his way to the hoop against guards and bigs alike.

“I can play the ‘1, 2, 3 or 4,” he said. “I think I’m playing more wing than I did the first two years, the first two years I was more a ‘4’ or ‘5’, except the first few games of my freshman year I played point guard.”

And as confusing as that sounds, watching him on the court doesn’t really help--he’ll post up and set screens like a big man, but can run the offense and create off the bounce like a point guard. And he can, at least at the high school level, defend almost anybody he’s matched up against.

Whatever he is, Longino is becoming quite a talented basketball player. He put that on display as GA took down St. Joseph’s Prep, 53-36 Philadelphia University on Wednesday night.

From scoring the opening bucket of the game to his final foul shots that made it a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter, Longino was the best player on the court, scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to lead both teams in both categories.

He was aggressive all game long, getting to the foul stripe 13 times, making 11, certainly a strong percentage for a lefty with a rather unorthodox shooting form. He also knocked down a triple from the left wing and had a three-point play in the third quarter, playing with a high motor all game long.

“It’s just being aggressive the whole game, just a relentless attack that I think is different about my game,” he said. “I think developing more of a mid-range game, shooting more 3s, making more 3s, being more efficient on the wing, I think that’s my biggest improvement.”

Division I schools are tracking Longino: NJIT assistant Kim Waiters was in the gym, and Longino mentioned the new Atlantic Sun member as one school that’s been in touch, as well as Penn, Princeton and several other Ivy League and Patriot League schools.

Penn-bound senior point guard Devon Goodman added 17 points for Germantown Academy (5-2), including a tough reverse layup off a feed from Longino at the first-half buzzer. And junior wing Kyle McCloskey joined Longino with 10 rebounds, adding five points of his own

Saint Joseph’s Prep (4-2) was led by sophomores Darius Kinnel (11 points) and Kyle Thompson (10 points). The two guards have been starting and playing well to begin the season, but Prep coach Speedy Morris isn’t easily impressed.

“Here’s the deal,” Morris said, “they both have talent but they have a long way to go. They can both shoot, they’ve got to learn how to play, really. But I’m very happy to have them, they’re both good kids.”

Surprisingly, this was the first win for Germantown Academy in the yearly series between two of the area’s most well-respected and longest-tenured coaches in nearly 10 years.

Fenerty, who’s in his 27th season at Germantown Academy, and Morris, who’s been at the Prep since 2001 after a 15-year run at La Salle University, have won more than 1,500 games combined in their years on the sidelines.

Afterwards, both coaches spoke highly of one another, agreeing that the game benefits both programs moving forward every year.

“You know you’re going to get tough kids and they’re going to be well-coached, I like playing Jim Fenerty,” Morris said. “We’ve been successful against him, but it was his turn tonight.”

In addition to the win, Fenerty gets one small additional bonus.

“The one thing I do enjoy is this is the one game all year where I’m considered the young guy on the sideline,” he quipped.