An aggressive and gritty style will be the continued trademark for the Princeton Day School’s boys’ basketball program.
Princeton Day School completed its season with a 14-11 record.
“We want our guys to not be afraid of the moment and just get after it. That is what I want us to be known for,” Princeton Day coach Douglas Davis said. “We want to have our guys get down and dirty, while playing the right way. We need to continue that grit moving forward. If we have those things, we will be successful.”
The Panthers advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Mercer County Tournament, when PDS fell to Hightstown High School, 69-63.
Hightstown went on to lose to Trenton Catholic Academy, 85-63, in the semifinal round. Trenton Catholic won the MCT championship with a 59-51 victory over Nottingham High School.
“I am proud of my guys. We suffered a lot of losses early that we should have won. We were just falling short so many times this season against teams we felt we should beat,” Davis said. “There was a lot of learning on the fly this year.”
Princeton Day loses five seniors for the 2019-20 team.
Key losses include guard Jaylin Champion-Adams, hybrid forward Lucas Green and guard Jomar Meekins.
“All of the seniors really took to heart the idea of legacy. They really helped to build the culture of PDS basketball. I hope that the guys coming up will continue to step up and bring the legacy forward.”
Key returners for the Panthers will be center Ethan Garita, guards Dameon Samuels and Hampton Sanders and forward Josh Colon.
“They are going to have to come back different players. Making sure they work on areas of their game and hope that any mistakes they made this year, won’t happen next year,” Davis said. “I want them to continue to grow as players and improve. It all about building on what we have.”
He added that he wants the team to work on controlling the pace with the guards and offensively connecting on more shots from three.
Offensively, the Panthers were led by Champion-Adams, who produced 16 points a game. Garita averaged 13.6 points and Samuels contibuted 8.6 points.
“The offseason is important, no matter if you are a junior varsity player or varsity player. It is important that guys are in shape and not complacent,” Davis said. “We want the guys to improve upon things they did well this season and fix the things they did wrong for next season. We need to continue the pressure on opponents next year and play PDS basketball.”