Ryan Nealon bounces a pass to Mason Fedor during a July 2 AAU basketball game at East Stroudsburg. The Abington Heights players are also teammates on the NEPA Elite 17U Coyle team.
Tom Robinson | The Abington Journal
EAST STROUDSBURG – Abington Heights was represented on both sides of a 17U Division Pool A game July 1 at The Hoop Group Summer Warm-Up, an AAU boys basketball event at East Stroudsburg University.
Mason Fedor was the top rebounder and Ryan Nealon was the second-leading scorer when the NEPA Elite 17U Coyle team recovered from a halftime deficit to defeat East Coast Power Danzig, 66-50. Danzig, an Abington Heights graduate, is coaching the top team out of the King of Prussia-based club.
Fedor finished with 10 points, 15 rebounds and three blocked shots. Nealon went 3-for-7 on 3-pointers while adding 12 points and two assists.
Abington Heights players figure prominently in the NEPA Elite program out of Riverfront Sports in Scranton, including Will Marion usually joining Fedor and Nealon in the Coyle team starting lineup. Marion missed the event at East Stroudsburg with a hand injury.
Nealon had 11 points in each of the other two games when the Coyle team was going 1-2 for the weekend. Fedor had four rebounds, four assists and three blocks in the second half while NEPA Elite was outscoring the New Jersey Panthers only to have a comeback fall short in a 68-56 loss.
Gene Curtin, another Comet, led NEPA Elite 16U Frank in rebounds and assists with five each during a 55-33 victory over the Lehigh Valley Force at East Stroudsburg.
Scranton Prep’s Daniel Santaniello led the win with 21 points, including 17 in the second half.
Robby Lucas from Abington Heights hit the go-ahead, 3-pointer late in the first half to send NEPA Elite 16U Tillery on its way to a 60-53 victory over East Coast Power McGowan July 2 at East Stroudsburg.
Lucas had nine points in the other game that day, a 64-42 loss to the Drogheda Wolves. He hit three first-half 3-pointers and was the leading scorer with 17 points the day before during a 55-47 loss to New Jersey Shoreshots.
Brycen Martin from Scranton Prep had 10 points in the team’s win along with eight and nine points in the two losses.
Jordan Shaffer from Abington Heights led the NEPA Elite 15U Dempsey team in scoring in all three games of the Zero Gravity Finals in Boston in June, then in one of the games while the team was going 2-1 at East Stroudsburg.
Shaffer averaged 22 points in Boston while making 14 shots from beyond the arc. He had four 3-pointers, 16 points and four assists in a 68-53 win over Stamford (Conn.) Peace Purple, was 5-for-9 on 3-pointers with 27 points in a 70-64 loss to Dana Barros Elite-Ato from Massachusetts and five more 3-pointers for 23 points in a 58-51 loss to Expressions Elite from New York.
Andrew Kettel, also from Abington Heights, had five assists and two steals in the win.
Shaffer hit 11 times from 3-point range while scoring 49 points in three games at East Stroudsburg.
In the July 1, 75-73, overtime loss to the New Jersey Panthers HGSL for the team’s only defeat of the weekend in the 15U Division Pool A, Shaffer’s three-point play in overtime gave NEPA Elite its last lead. He had five 3-pointers and 22 points in that loss, then four 3-pointers, 12 points and four assists in a 60-50 win over PA Hoops Academy HGSL.
Shaffer had a team-high 15 points and grabbed five rebounds in a 50-36 victory over Andre Catlett Elite on the final day. Kettel had three assists in that win.
