By Chris Parker
Thomas Jefferson boys basketball returns its two leading scorers from last season’s three-win team.
Leading scorer Jack Twiss returns for his sophomore season. The guard averaged 9.8 points per game last season.
“He gained a lot of valuable experience last season and really started to adjust to the speed and physicality of varsity basketball toward the end of the year,” Thomas Jefferson head coach Chris Myers said.
Kohl Thurman was the second-leading scorer in his sophomore season at 8.9 points per game. He was the leading rebounder at (8.2 rpg) and blocks (1.5 bpg).
“Kohl has put in a ton of work in the off season as he looks to assert himself as one of the leading big men in the area,” Myers said.
Senior forward Ethan Renger also returns after he averaged 5.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game as a junior. He will be the lone senior.
“Ethan, as a junior, had the difficult task of being the primary leader of last year’s very young team,” Myers said. “He did a fantastic job in that leadership role, and we will look to him to continue that leadership role this year.”
Freshman point guard Will Twiss will make an immediate varsity impact.
“Will had a great summer and will look to take over the point guard duties from his brother, Jack,” Myers said. “The speed/physicality of the game will be an adjustment, but Will is a competitive young man that will undoubtably rise to that challenge.”
Jaxx Wisdom (junior forward), Spencer Long (sophomore forward), Yousuf Mokhtar (sophomore forward) and Simon Studer (sophomore guard) will also look to impact the varsity equation.
“I think our biggest strength will be our overall competitiveness,” Myers said. “The team will again be very young, but they have proven that they love the challenge and have not backed down from anyone.”
Myers wants to see his team improve on handling defensive pressure.
“We made huge strides last year handling pressure,” Myers said. “As a young team, people pressured us a ton last year. We finally learned what it takes to handle that in the later part of the season. We need to pick up where we left off, so we can move forward with improving our half court offensive execution.”
Thomas Jefferson opens the season on Nov. 25 at Exeter.
“We really struggled last year,” Myers said. “A successful season this year would be continuing to move forward. We will likely start a freshman and two or three sophomores – so our main goal will be to be competitive night in and night out. Hopefully that will also translate to more wins too.”
