PGH NJ High School Team Spotlight: Shawnee

Prep Girls Hoops Staff

September 22, 2021 @ 11:28 PM

We’ve gotten the chance to really start taking a close look at some excellent programs across the state of New Jersey as we’ve started out ’High School Team Spotlight’ series. Something interesting discussed in our latest article on Camden Catholic is how they benefitted from transfers in the spring. The same goes for Shawnee as they were able to put together a 9-4 season, including a 6-2 conference record. Those are now benchmarks for this program on the rise going into this season, and the Renegades have every reason to keep the hype train going. This year’s hype stems from one player, Cherokee transfer [player_tooltip player_id="321572" first="Avery" last="Kessler"], who shined on this team in the spring, leading Shawnee in scoring, three-point shooting, assists and steals. Kessler averaged 13.0 PPG as a sophomore, which begs the question, what bar can she reach as a junior? Alongside the guard is junior [player_tooltip player_id="321564" first="Nia" last="Scott"], the backbone of the team in the interior. Scott led Shawnee in blocks and rebounds last season, nearly averaging a double-double as she averaged 12.5 PPG in the spring. If Kessler can keep up the success she’s had on the offensive end, knocking down shots from the perimeter and racking up assists to help find open teammates, and Scott can hold down the fort in the middle, Shawnee has a lethal one-two punch. Juniors Kaylan Deveney and Nicole Miller are two fantastic three-point shooters in their own right, with Deveney knocking down more on the season, 12, and Miller averaging more points per game, 8.6. Those four are definitely going to be in Shawnee’s starting lineup this season, but that fifth spot is yet to be determined as we see a few names who could step up. With three graduating seniors, that takes some names out of the running, but an intriguing one is sophomore Taylor Tchou, who averaged 5.5 PPG in two games last season. A full season will only help her out as the unusual nature of her freshman season probably didn’t help her development as she was expecting coming in. However, now as a sophomore, this is her time to show why she deserves to stay up on varsity. This Shawnee team is undoubtedly going to give fits to a lot of teams in the region this coming season, so keep a keen eye out for them.