Gwen was on watch for a breakout performance at the PGH Michigan Freshman Showcase, and she delivered under the spotlight. Gwen has an advantage with her long frame, and she used every inch of it to disrupt passing lanes and defend space. She used a rip move to drive by her defender, then beat the help to the doorstep for a high finish. Gwen put on a footwork clinic after attacking down the baseline, pivoting, and stepping through to score in traffic. She split through a gap to score a floater, froze her defender with a shot-fake to score a drive-by layup, defended well in the post, and converted layups with both hands efficiently throughout the day. Gwen scored a tough and-one layup through contact, and got to the rim whenever she wanted to. She showed the confidence to shoot the three and drilled a smooth wing triple off the bounce. Gwen has the athleticism, length, and strength of a forward, can handle the ball in the open court, penetrate, score at the rim, and knock down shots from the outside. She has an extremely high ceiling and will be the newcomer everyone’s talking about this winter in the CAAC. Portland will be an exciting young team.

Gwen is a very promising prospect coming up through the Portland ranks. Her milestone moment was at the Big North Shootout, and I learned there that Gwen broke the Middle School high jump record, which makes a lot of sense when you see her jumping out of her shoes to finish around the basket. Her length, athleticism, and versatility create matchup problems on the court. She closes passing windows, gets to the rim in minimal dribbles, and finishes with a soft touch. Gwen will be a prospect to watch at the PGH Michigan Freshman Showcase.

When you see a prospect that’s nearly 6 feet in length moving like a guard, you tend to notice. Add the fact that Gwen is an incoming freshman who hasn’t hit her fundamental ceiling yet, and now you have the makings of an elite prospect. Gwen had a breakout day for Portland at the Big North Shootout. She broke the middle school high jump record (5’2″), and that athleticism translates to the basketball court. Gwen caused havoc with her length at the top of the zone. She turned deflections into steals and motored up the court for quick fast break layups. Gwen swiped the ball away up top, used long pushout dribbles with both hands to create separation, and finished with her left off two feet without slowing down. She slashed to the hoop after a quick crossover for a drive-by layup with her off hand and went up strong into contact. Gwen used a quick rip move to create space and drained a deep pull-up jumper up top off the bounce. She split the gap on a hard drive and used a sweet fake-pass move to score with her left. One of Gwen’s highlights came when she caught a pass on the wing, ripped by a defender using one dribble, took two long strides, and dropped in the floater over the help after faking a pass. I seldom see a prospect get to the rim from the perimeter in one dribble. That was the exclamation point to an impressive day.

Gwen had a strong all-around showing for Team Lynx, knocking down multiple threes during the shooting drills and carrying that rhythm into gameplay. She made smart cuts to the basket, finishing effectively at the rim, including a smooth left-hand finish. On defense, she stayed disciplined and walled up well, making it difficult for opponents to get clean looks inside.