CoBL Interstate Shootout: Notable Performances

Chad Graham September 21, 2021 @ 05:21 PM

Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware basketball are all in good hands. Teams across the 3 states competed in two games each, at Friends Central School in Philadelphia, hosted by City of Basketball Love. Here are some teams and individuals who impressed over the weekend. Team Standouts Life Center (NJ) Life Center’s defense fed their offense with Reggie Dillard leading that effort. He swiped the opposing point guards in their first game at least 4 times and quickly converted them into layups. Additionally, he got LCA going on offense by hitting deep threes. Landon Shivers showed vast improvements since the spring, especially as a post scorer. Landon was aggressive when he got paint touches and punished mismatches. LCA ceiled the game 1 win with a dominant performance from [player_tooltip player_id="901963" first="Justin" last="Hawkins"] using his mature skillset. J-Hawk’s got to his 15 foot jumpers over both shoulders with footwork you don’t usually see from a wing in high school. He topped it off with impressive pick & roll reads. The primary beneficiary of which was [player_tooltip player_id="1270571" first="Chase" last="Murray"]. Finishing above the rim got him going after a slow start and translated to him having an impact on defense by blocking shots. Roman Catholic (PA) Down a starter, the Cahilites cruised in both their games Sunday. [player_tooltip player_id="901951" first="Daniel" last="Skillings"] was a force on the glass - rebounding and pinning shots. He flew up and down the court, getting whatever he wanted at the rim. [player_tooltip player_id="1128376" first="Matija" last="Radunovic"]’s reputation as a skilled player on offense is growing, but Sunday he displayed his versatility on defense as a guy who can switch onto positions 1-4. He’s going to be such a vital piece as Roman takes a shot at the PCL championship. [player_tooltip player_id="991334" first="Xzayvier" last="Brown"] dipped in and out the lane, making plays. He wisely used much of the day working on his three point shooting. They also have a couple young guys who flashed - Tobi Ojukwu (2024) and [player_tooltip player_id="1188620" first="Shareef" last="Jackson"] (2025). Ojukwu showed good burst coming out of his cross over and Jackson rebounded well. Individual Standouts Zaki Alston | 2023 Sankofa Freedom (PA) Alston was the offensive engine for Sankofa. He took a high volume of threes and all of them were in the flow of the offense. His strong lower body was critical to how he drove to the basket. The Philadelphia Public League has another good one on the rise. [player_tooltip player_id="1200804" first="Liam" last="Cummiskey"] | 2022 Central Bucks East (PA) An incredible shooter, Liam got buckets all day for CB East. He consistently made teams pay for giving him an ounce of space to get his shot off. From there, Cummiskey took advantage of the attention he was getting by finding the open man when defenders closed out too hard. [player_tooltip player_id="1119137" first="Jackson" last="Hicke"] | 2022 Radnor (PA) Hicke handled ball pressure well in the open floor. His fluid handle carried over to half court sets and allowed him to access live-dribble passes and smooth, one-motion jump shots. Justin Molen | 2022 Salesianum (DE) The 6’7 2-way wing put on an exhibition Saturday. Justin was seemingly everywhere on defense - guarding the other team’s best player, switching onto bigs, and helping protect the rim. Offensively, he pushed the ball in transition and, at times, initiated for them, averaging 24 points on the day. [player_tooltip player_id="1279644" first="Jake" last="Warren"] | 2023 Downingtown West (PA) This young man displayed modern big skills with a throwback mentality. Jake was extremely physical on both ends, but mobile enough to run the floor on the wing and guard in space. D-West kept feeding him because of how he passed and shot the lights out.from the perimeter. Highlight of the Event In Abington’s game against Bishop Eustace (NJ), Connor Fields got a steal and initiated the fastbreak. He then threw a lob - that I thought was too high and behind - to Derrius Lucas, but Lucas caught it and a body as he completed the play, picking up the and-1.   For more basketball coverage, follow me on twitter @cgraham_sports.