City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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Here’s the report from the JTBL on Thursday, May 12; for the full league standings, schedule and leading scorers, click here:

Game Scores

Abington 61, Cristo Rey 41
George Washington 64, Pennsbury 46
Cherokee 40, C.B. West 37
Imhotep 76, Harry S. Truman 61

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Roberson brothers shine in Cherokee win

Wiley and Naseem Roberson may be competitors on their driveway at home, but the brothers cherish the opportunity to play on the same high school basketball team.

Wiley, a 6-foot-3 wing and the older brother, thinks sharing the backcourt with his younger brother is great due to the relationship the two have between them.

“It’s really fun,” he said after dropping 13 points in a win over C.B. West. “Anytime you get to play with your little brother is fun because the chemistry is really good. I’m looking forward to playing with him next year.”

Naseem, a 5-9 point guard, loves having his brother on the wing to distribute the ball to in order to get the victory.

“It feels good, I love playing with my brother. Running up and down the court, getting my brother and teammates involved to get the win,” said Naseem, who had a buzzer beater three to win the game and cap off a nine-point game.

The two have dreams of one day going off to college and playing college basketball together, just like their cousin Kyle Lowry was successful in doing. They even have aspirations in playing for the same NBA team as well.

“We thought about playing college ball at either Kentucky or Villanova. We always had dreams of playing for the Toronto Raptors, joining our cousin Kyle Lowry. But for now, I get to start and play at the high school level with my brother,” Naseem said.

The two feel that with their time left in high school, there is still a lot of damage that they can can together. Wiley, a slashing forward, will look to take up a bigger role for Cherokee, who posted a 21-9 record for the 2015-16 season under the first year of head coach Eric Cassidy’s tenure.

Based on the way he played Thursday night, Naseem looks ready to get some serious minutes on varsity this season. Naseem is a player that can come off the bench and get his teammates involved from the get-go, along with taking defenders off the dribble to the rim.

Wiley has a lot of confidence in his team and his brother’s future success going forward.

“I think our team can go far. Naseem is only a sophomore. He is a real killer, we’re going to be really good this year,” he said.

--Chris Stewart

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Sample planning big things for second season

George Washington head coach Kyle Sample is working to establish the culture he wants for his team entering his second season.

“I think it was a success for the goals that we set out to accomplish,” said Sample after his team’s 64-46 win over Pennsbury to lead them to a 2-1 start to the JTBL season. “I think going forward, we made some progress (towards our goal.” We’re not there yet, but we’re working towards it.

After finishing the last season with an 11-13 record, and 11 players from the varsity team returning, Sample is trying to develop the habits necessary for his players to succeed off and on the court.

George Washington lost to Simon Gratz in the Public League AAAA playoffs in Sample’s first year with the team.

“It was lot of our guys first playoff game,” said Sample. “The playoffs are different. I understand that we didn’t come out with our intensity, and some of our older guys went down, and we had to rely on some freshman. It was just a hard situation to come back from.”

New to the team last year, among others, was 6-7 forward Elijah Kiah-El, who transferred in from Mastery South. The junior, a South Philly native, has added an inside presence underneath the rim for Washington.

Kiah-El showed ferocious scoring and rebounding ability on Thursday night, scoring 29 points in the win. He also went 6-of-7 from the foul line, making his offensive game even more noticeable for onlookers.

“[Sample’s] been encouraging me to work on my free throws and facing up,” Kiah-El said after the game. “He’s pushed me to be better and he’s pushed us all.”

“It makes the game easier, having an inside threat,” Sample added. “His versatility is crazy. You can post him up, he’ll screen and roll, spin and pop. He just makes decisions to make the job easier. He’s a great target, and great hands at the rim. It’s great having a guy who can rebound like that and block shots.

“We want him to not only try to be the best player on the floor, but play the hardest. (He’s) the one who rotates, he’s always talking, runs the floor rim to rim, you know… He’s that guy for us going forward. We have a lot of other guys that will step it up, but it’s good knowing that we have him.”

Sample was critical of Kiah-El’s game, despite the scoring outburst.

“I’d still like to see him move his feet a little better, but he’ll get there”

-- Geno Cantell

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Quick Hits

-- Imhotep has had a number of talented underclassmen take the court during the JTBL as head coach Andre Noble is using the league largely as a chance to get to evaluate the freshmen and sophomores who dotted his varsity and JV roster. But when Elijah Thomas stood out in a win over Truman, it was rather shocking to find out that he was still an eighth grader. At 6-foot-8, Taylor already has great size for a post player, and his body is far from scrawny as well. Not that Noble needed to feel better

-- Abington is coming off a 20-6 record last season (15-1 Suburban One League) and is expecting big things out of rising junior point guard, Robbie Heath. Heath tallied 13 points in tonight’s victory over Cristo Rey in a variety of ways. Heath hit a three, took his defender off the dribble to finish around the rim multiple times, was 3-for-4 at the free throw line, and stole a pass at one end to finish off with a slam at the other. The Aussie demonstrated great handle and showed his good vision with some brilliant no look feeds to teammates for easy lay ups. Heath also was active on the defensive end, coming up with a few steals to then lead his team in transition.