Jio Fontan steals the show at Conshohocken
Posted: Thursday, April 12, 2007
by Joseph Jagde
I traveled to Conshohocken PA this past Monday April 9 th , for the annual Donfrio classic which continues into next week. The first game featured Positive Image against Main Street. The game started off as a battle right away with Main Street starting off with a slight edge, led by 6’6 junior Nasir Robinson, who is considered the number 2 junior in the state of Pennsylvania and is committed to Pittsburgh. Robinson was unfortunately out of action in the second half because of an ankle sprain near the end of the first half. Offensively, Nasir plays big, using both strength and quickness for either short jumpers or finishes at the rim. He uses an excellent one on one type handle to get his shots and is a one on one type player rather than a spot up shooter off picks. He displayed excellent quickness with the dribble drive. Also with Main Street was 5’11 Karon Burton from Chester High School, rated the number 4 junior in the state of Pennsylvania for next years class. He is a quick confident point guard who shots well off the dribble from deep and is particularly adept at driving to the basket and finishing. He was particularly impressive for his confidence on the court. Edwin Santiago, committed to Delaware as a shooting guard, showed he can shoot the basketball for Main Street. Torrance Timothy, a 6’6 small forward from Lansdowne, PA’s Pennwood high school who is a small forward or shooting guard, showed he can break down the defense of the dribble and hit the lefty jumper from midrange. Also, for Main Street, senior guard Micah Covert, shot particularly well. Also impressing for Main street was 6’7 sophomore Rahlir Jefferson from Chester High school who is one of the top 100 sophomores in the nation. He is strong for a sophomore and had a particularly impressive sequence late in the first half where he had 3 straight steals, a high rising dunk on the break where his hand was a foot over the rim, followed by a deep jumper and a soft baseline jumper off the dribble which found the net as well. He obviously has great hands. Also for Main Street, Steve Egee a 6’3 junior shooting guard from Ridley High in Folsom, PA, considered top 15 in the state in the junior class, had some nicely angled finishes going to the basket.
Brad Wanamaker from Roman Catholic High School, the number 4 rated senior in Pennsylvania who is committed to Pittsburgh, was relatively quite this game for Positive Image until late when he had key finishes at the end of the game off drives down the lane and a long three as well as several foul shots. Courtney Stanley, a 6’2 junior guard from Roman Catholic High School displayed good speed with the ball and handled the ball adeptly in traffic for Positive Image and is the vocal leader on the court. Despite the absence of Robinson in the second half, Positive Image just etched out a victory in the final minute and the final score was 89 to 85 in favor of Positive Image who advanced to the next round in the tournament.
For Positive Image, Edwards finished with 23 points and Brian Wannamaker had 19 points and 9 assists with most of his points late in the game in the last 3 minutes. Courtney Stanley added 14 points.
For Main Street, Torrence Timothy had 13 points and Edwin Santiago, Nasir Robinson and Karon Burton had 12 apiece with all of Robinson’s points coming in the first half as he sat out the second half with an ankle injury.
The second game featured Team Final verses Playaz. The gym filled to capacity for this game as highly touted junior Tyreke Evans was on hand for Team Final. Tyreke, a 6’6 guard, is considered by many to be the number 1 junior in the nation. Playaz has a roster mainly populated by stars from New Jersey and Delaware with an excellent rotation of players.
The game started off with Tyreke being himself, hitting deep threes and driving to the hoop with sleek moves and he does have moves you haven’t even thought off.
Ominously, there was only one sophomore guard on the bench for Team Final, and for the Playaz, there was a full contingent of athletic looking players ready to relieve the starters. Team Final did not have a prototypical big man to defend the paint.
After an early big lead on the part of Team Final, Playaz began to play itself back into the game.
Jio Fontan, a 6 foot junior point guard from national powerhouse St. Anthony’s high school in Jersey City, New Jersey mostly ran the show for the Playaz’s rotating lineup as he set a tone early, by driving hard to the hoop in heavy traffic and showing that this was going to be a game.
With Tyreke, on Team Final, were bookend sophomores Dalton Pepper, a 6’5 swingman from Pennsbury, Pa who is considered the number 1 sophomore in the state of Pennsylvania and one of the top 50 players nationally in the class of 2009 and the number two sophomore in the state, 6’5 Omar Griffin of American Christian high school. Also, for Team Final was 6’4 senior guard Ramon Moore from South Philadelphia, a reputed outside shooter who will be playing at Temple University next year.
Playaz had a wide array of quite impressive players, including 6’6 Brian Oliver from Willington, Delaware who played great defense and hit shots from tough angles and 6’6 Dominique Cheeks, a top 50 national player in the class of 2009 from St. Anthony’s in Jersey City, New Jersey and some additional big men from the South. Also, 6’7 Austin Johnson, a top 100 junior nationally from Cheltenham high in Wyncote, PA is a strong forward with a good touch who is simply not going to let up on the court.
After the great start, Tyreke cooled off a bit on his outside shooting. He looks to shoot the three well outside of the circle and it is often more of a 25 foot shot rather than a shot just outside the three point circle. He did an excellent job of hitting cutters to the basket such as Oscar Griffin who finished nicely throughout the game. Dalton Pepper sprayed 3 pointers along with some tough finishes down low and sparked and rallied the team at a couple of points in key moments of the game. Playaz mounted a furious comeback and took the lead late in the game with only a couple of minutes to go. With excellent players rotating off the bench for the Playaz and foul trouble mounting for Team Final without the backup bench help, the outcome of the game was in doubt. Evans, began to stay on the far outside on offense to defend the break, not going in for drives or offensive rebounds. He seemed to play a bit more cautiously given the foul trouble and no bench help as the team only had six players.
Within all this, the story of the game that emerged was the entertaining play of Jio Fontan. With Tyreke Evans on the court as the superstar of the nation, Jio would get the award for entertainment in this game as the crowd began to ask, who is he? He has strong shoulders and really at times forced the issue, but it was a sight to behold when he drove hard to the basket in heavy traffic with twisting and turning acrobatic moves in the air or how he would swing back for arching jump shots and then hit long jumpers off the dribble in the face of double teams where he launched from almost impossible angles yet swished the ball home.
Tyreke also seemed a bit bothered by the take no prisoners defense of Dom Cheeks who also was finishing with high rising jams on the other end and hitting mid range jumpers. Cheeks really fits in well with the fast break style of basketball and is a big time defender.
This game was tied with a couple of minutes to go, and helped by a couple of favorable bounces of the basketball, Team Final jumped to a 5 point lead and with the fouling the final score was 115 to 105 in favor on Team Final. Ramon Moore played well throughout for Team Final, finishing drives to the basket with nice dips in the lane. Dalton Pepper played tough defense in the paint and hit the backboards well, despite more being a wing player as only a sophomore, he played big and well within the team concept.
But the story of the game was Jio Fontan, and his eye popping finishes from deep and from off the superlative handle in traffic. I spoke to him after the game, and he said he admires as college players, D. J. Augustine of Texas and Mike Conley of Ohio State and Steve Nash as his NBA favorite player and these are the players he would like to emulate in terms of style of play on the court.
Jio Fontan finished with 30 points for the Playaz. For the Playaz, Dom Cheeks had 18 points, and Austin Johnson had 20 points and 10 rebounds. For team final, Tyreke Evans finished with 29 points and 12 rebounds, Oscar Griffin had 30 points and 10 rebound Ramon Moore had 23 points and 12 rebounds.
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