Who are Palm Beach County’s top hoopers heading into 2024?
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Palm Beach County high school basketball is back in full force after an action-packed winter break.
From holiday tournaments to regular season matchups that helped ring in the new year, local athletes you know stayed busy at work on the hardwood.
Below, check out some of the area’s most recent top performers.
Top performers as January slate kicks off Robert Brown, PG/SG, Inlet Grove
There’s no calm to this storm. The freshman Hurricane has been one to track in his first varsity season, spending it so far as the team’s captain and scoring leader. Brown is averaging 14.3 points per game on the year, but dropped 21 points in each of his last two outings to seal wins for Inlet Grove at home against Forest Hill and on the road at St. John Paul II.
The 3A crew is 8-3 and currently stands third in the race for District 8, as indicated by the first power rankings release by the Florida Athletic Association.
Jake Harbatkin, G, Olympic Heights
Hoping to build on a three-game win streak in January, the Lions are 6-6 as they return for their slate of regular season matchups. In OH’s most recent 82-67 tournament victory over Nova, Harbatkin split a game-high 21 points with 6-foot-2 sophomore Haddy Cohen, adding four rebounds along the way.
Jermaine Council, PG/SG, Cardinal Newman
Council being on the floor seems to be the key to the Crusaders’ turnaround season. Last year’s 10-15 record is a thing of the past, now replaced by a shiny 11-4 run that could see Newman back to the 3A playoff in 2024.
While No. 157 in Florida and 29th in their division per the FHSAA, the Crusaders on the floor are legit. Going into the break, Council was averaging an impressive stat line of 16 points, four rebounds, three assists, three deflections, and two steals per game through nine appearances. Ready for a January schedule stacked with competition like John I. Leonard, Inlet Grove, and St. Andrew’s, the senior’s numbers are only going to go up from there.
Brendan Gerard, PG/SG, American Heritage-Delray
Led by the all-around sophomore star, the Stallions are charging into 2024 with a 10-2 record. Gerard tops the charts for the Top 100 team in scoring, assists, steals, blocks, averaging 18.6, 3.8, 3.0, and 0.8 per game. His average 1.2 charges per game rank second in Class 4A, in which No. 88 overall Heritage-Delray stands 15th.
Tray Goldwire, PG/SG, Park Vista
The 6-foot-2 junior saw Vista reach a milestone on the season — and in the career of Cobras head coach Terrence Atkinson II. At home against Palm Beach Gardens last Friday, Goldwire dropped the game-winning three that meant a 63-62 win to snap a five-game string of losses, and clinch Atkinson’s 100th career victory.
Kenny Greenling, C, Jupiter
Jupiter’s senior big man, billed at 6foot-9, 215 pounds, has been imperative the team’s noteworthy success this winter. For the Warriors’ 11th win of the season, only taking two losses thus far, Greenling led scoring with 14 points in a 58-37 shutdown of Spruce Creek.
Over the holidays at the John Carroll New Year’s Tournament, Greenling’s stunning 26-point, 12-rebound performance meant all she wrote for a high-scoring St. Brendan squad, who fell 58-45.
Landen Harwood, PG/SG/SF, Lake Worth Christian
Averaging 27 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals per game this season, Harwood is still serving the Defenders as the lifeline he’s been since joining the varsity team when he was in 8th grade. To kick off the new year, the junior dropped 41 points in Lake Worth Christian’s 73-54 win over Benjamin to see the returning 2A playoff contender to a record of 8-5.
Dior Johnson, PG, St. John Paul II
Finding its footing without longtime face of the program Kyle Edison was a struggle for SJPII at the start of the season, seen by a start marked by four consecutive losses. Since, the Eagles have built their way back up for a 7-7 record as they return to their regular season schedule.
An 83-70 tournament matchup win over a 9-3 Miami-Central team was forged by a game-high 25-point performance from Johnson.
Amari Nealy, W, Dwyer
Nealy’s 14-point, 8-rebound performance to lead the Panthers to a 6A state championship in March was just a taste of what was to come in his senior season.
Now sharing the role of team scoring leader with fellow 2024 prospect Jaelen Nelson, averaging 13.8 points per game, Nealy had three double doubles on the season going into what would become a 73-59 tournament win over Plantation in the Holiday Basketball Classic of the Palm Beaches, in which he posted 19 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Nealy also contributed two assists and split another team-best four steals with Bobby Gilbert III.
Ryan Waugh, PG/SG, Palm Beach Central
One of the county’s top teams, the Broncos are 10-3 on the season. One of the biggest impact players who has emerged on a senior-stacked Central’s run has been a sophomore.
Waugh was a major factor in Central going 2-0 at the Marcus McGee Basketball Sunshine State Winter Challenge, dropping 11 points and four rebounds to take down Cooper City, 37-33, and 10 points, plus three assists to down Plantation, 82-50. To keep the wins coming in January, the 6-footer had four assists and tied senior Jacoby Evans with 11 points against Somerset Prep, who fell 77-44.
Edward Wood, F, Royal Palm Beach
Wildcats coach Deonte Savage was
“surprised” by the efforts of the senior in a season opener victory against Atlantic. Since, Wood has only gotten better, proving a major contributor to the 10-3 record that Royal Palm has built this winter.
On the other side of being under construction, riding high after a 10-16 finish in 2023, the 7A program took its record to 10-3 with a 69-57 win over West Boca, highlighted by a team-leading 17 points from Wood. He also chipped in 10 points to see his teammates snap an eightgame win streak for undefeated Mt. Lebanon (PA) in the Legacy Sunshine State Explosion over the holidays.
Girls Philleah Bright, PG/SG/SF, Suncoast
Can 5-5 Suncoast make the transition to a winning record in January? With Bright on the court, the forecast is looking good.
Navigating her third consecutive season as scoring leader for the Chargers, averaging 14.4 points per game as a junior. Before seeing Suncoast to a 67-59 tournament victory over West Feliciana (LA), Bright topped the Chargers and the undefeated Atlantic Eagles in a hard-fought 66-51 loss, in which she scored a season-high 25 points, highlighted by three three-pointers. She also posted six rebounds and four assists.
Breanna Custodio, PG, Seminole Ridge
To clinch a spot in the championship game of the Rising Star Holiday Classic, Custodio was the go-to girl in a 53-49 win over Somerset-South Homestead. On top of a momentum-shifting threepointer in the third quarter to tie the game after a 12-point deficit, the junior led the Hawks in points with 17 total, adding four rebounds, five assists and two steals in the dub.
Delanie Doty, G/F, Somerset Canyons
This winter, Doty’s been busy at work to keep the same energy that saw her ball her way to 4A region semifinals as an eighth grader in 2023. Leading the Cougars with an average 15.3 points per game, Doty reached new heights in the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational as she netted her second-best career performance. She scored a team-high 22 points with five buckets on five attempts from three-point range.
The freshman standout also had five rebounds, three assists, and one block for a 65-54 win to notch another win on what’s now a 9-5 record for SomersetCanyons.
LaNiya Hall, C, Palm Beach Lakes
14 points and six rebounds against Sandy Spring Friends (MD) in the Holiday Classic of the Palm Beaches earned Hall Player of the Game honors and evened out the Rams’ record to 6-6 to start the new year. The tournament showing was the 6-foot-1 sophomore’s best all-around performance since taking on a new role as a starter this season.
Alicia Russell, G, Palm Beach Gardens
30-point performances from fellow senior teammate and captain Kyana Poitier can blind eyes from looking to see the individuals surrounding the national rebounding leader. But if you’re in the bleachers, Russell’s efforts are impossible to miss.
To start 2024 off in the win column, Russell led her team with 12 points and five steals, and posted two rebounds and three assists. She impressed again against Cardinal Newman, swiping opportunities to score from the Crusaders, who fell 62-17, with a game-high six steals. As another week of competition begins, the Gators are 12-2.
Skylar Turk, G, American Heritage-Delray
This season has offered quite the boom in the books for Turk. Ranking No. 5 in Florida with an average 25.1 points per game, the junior put together the best performance of her career thus far at Heritage-Delray against Grandview Prep. The Pride got taken down a notch by a 35-point outing for Turk.
Emilee Smarr is a sports reporter for the Palm Beach Post. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.