The Riverside junior basketball player scored 58 points in two wins. He had 32 points and earned Taylor Lions Tournament MVP, as the Vikings defeated Lackawanna Trail, 86-59. Then, he scored 26 points in a 66-38 win over Mid Valley.<\/p>\n
Family: Mom, Kristyn; dad, Gerry; brother, Gerry; sister, Kayla.<\/p>\n
What do you think of how you\u2019ve played recently: I thought it\u2019s been a lot better. At the beginning, I wasn\u2019t scoring as much as I would like to, so I just decided to step it up and get more aggressive and attacking the basket and it has proven to do good for the team.<\/p>\n
What was it like transitioning from football to basketball season: It\u2019s a whole different game. The conditioning was a little off, but coach did a good job of getting us in shape real quick, and the physicality and stuff was there, so we just kept it rolling.<\/p>\n
Your team is 10-0. What do you think of the team\u2019s performance so far this season: It\u2019s been good with me and Nico (Antoniacci) obviously scoring, and the other guys doing whatever they can to get us extra possessions and knocking down shots when they\u2019re wide open and getting layups.<\/p>\n
What is it like playing alongside Nico Antoniacci: It\u2019s great. He\u2019s only a sophomore and he\u2019s got multiple Division I looks, and the kid\u2019s insane. He\u2019ll come down the court, do a couple moves and pull up from I don\u2019t even know how far and it\u2019s just cash. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve never seen before. It\u2019s insane.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re getting some Division I offers yourself from Syracuse and Lehigh for football. What\u2019s that been like for you: It\u2019s always been basketball No. 1, but after those (I\u2019d) definitely switch to football. It\u2019s that training for speed to get that up, but it\u2019s nice.<\/p>\n
You also do track and field. What is it like being a three-sport athlete? How are you able to balance it: When I\u2019m in season, I mainly try to focus on the sport that I\u2019m in, but always have in the back of my head that there\u2019s other sports that I play also. So doing what I can, whether it\u2019s being in shape from something to something or doing plyometrics from basketball to track for the jumping stuff.<\/p>\n
What are your team\u2019s goals for this season: The goal is, first it\u2019s the league championship, then district championship, then, ultimately, state championship.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re playing Dunmore, which is off to a great start, on Tuesday. How are you preparing for Dunmore: They\u2019re a great team and what we\u2019ve got to do is we\u2019ve got to limit their second-chance options and get hands on all the shooters that they have because basically everybody on their team can shoot. So, we\u2019ve just got to do that and ultimately get more points on the board than them.<\/p>\n
Do you have any plans for after high school: Right now, I\u2019m doing a co-op. So, I\u2019m half the day at Johnson College for mechanics, and then I go back to my high school for my core classes. So, after high school I\u2019d like to be in mechanics and open up my own business.<\/p>\n
Sports you play: Football, basketball, track and field.<\/p>\n
Athletes you admire: One of my teammates, Tavian Branch. He\u2019s always out there working and he deserves all that he has and he\u2019s always pushing me. Another one is my parents. They were good athletes growing up, and they\u2019re always trying to push me, as well.<\/p>\n
Do you have any superstitions or rituals before a game: Every time in the locker room, we always break it down. And while I\u2019m out there and the national anthem\u2019s going, I always pray for basically the same thing every single time. And I point to the sky for my grandfather who passed away. And I always say the game is for him.<\/p>\n
What does your grandfather mean to you: We lost him a couple years ago. That was my guy. Whether it was working on the pool or doing something with my hands, that\u2019s really where I got where I wanted to be a mechanic from. That was my guy.<\/p>\n
Favorite food: Grilled cheese.<\/p>\n
Favorite sports teams: New York Giants, Golden State Warriors, New York Mets.<\/p>\n
Three people you\u2019d like to have dinner with: Steph Curry, Jaxson Dart, Cam Skattebo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Riverside junior basketball player scored 58 points in two wins. He had 32 points and earned Taylor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[7804,305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-81319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-athlete-of-the-week","9":"tag-high-school-sports","10":"tag-scranton","11":"tag-scranton-headlines","12":"tag-scranton-news","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}