DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. – The Kelsey Carey who has dominated for three seasons at St. Joseph Hill is finally playing for the New York City Heat.
“I’m not going to say I was scared, but it’s something new going from Hill to this,” the rising senior forward said of her two seasons with the Heat. “Getting a year of experience I know what to expect.”
Last summer was her first traveling with coach Kevin White and the Heat, playing against some of the nation’s top teams and at a pace she wasn’t used too. Carey was timid at times. She didn’t perform like the player who scored 610 points last season, over a 1,000 in her three seasons on varsity and was a double-double threat each game.
“I feel like I have an obligation to step up,” Carey said of this summer.
The biggest change is her aggressiveness. She is putting the ball on the floor, attacking the basket and getting to the free throw line, adding that to her established mid-range game.
Aided by Veronica Ganzi, Gabriella Rubin and Kelin Walsh, Carey helped lead the Heat’s charge back in an eventual 54-51 overtime loss to the Michigan Crossover 15’s. Her role has grown with Mary Louis forward Jordan Agustus not at the tourament to tend to a family issue. The Heat have lost three games by a combined eight points.
“Last year I would have babied out,” she said. “Now I don’t take it. I go back at everybody now.”
Her three-point play and free throw tied the score at 45 with 23.9 seconds left in regulation. After a Ganzi 3-pointer, Carey got the Heat within a point with two free throws late in the overtime, but they couldn’t get any closer. College coaches have taken notice of her improved play. Carey has interest from Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Fairfield and Wagner. Fairfield has begun to come on stronger, according to White.
“I’m just giving it all I can now.” Carey said. “I don’t really know what lies ahead. … You can’t really worry about it now. You just have to play.”
Jones making mark at New Heights: Curtiz Simpson calls Aaliyah Jones the team’s glue.
“Without her, we don’t win,” he said of the Bishop Ford guard.
The rising junior guard is in her first season with New Heights after previously playing with Exodus NYC. She has immediately taken over as the team point guard, floor general and one of its top defenders. Jones has interest from Hofstra, FDU and Bucknell, among others.
Explosive in transition and able to catch fire from the perimeter, she established herself as one of the area’s top talents in her first season on the varsity with the Falcons last season.
“She can cover so much ground,” Simpson said. “Her length and her will to make you pick the ball up is what we needed.”
Local teams off to perfect starts: Long Island Lighting-Slater, the NYC Bulldogs 17’s and the NYC Warriors-DeLuca are all 4-0 heading into the final day of pool play on Tuesday. The Warriors have done so in the gold bracket and the Bulldogs in the silver, where they are the defending champions. The Lightning, with a team full of rising juniors or younger, are doing so in the second-tier platinum bracket behind the play of Queens native and Long Island Lutheran guard Lauren (Boogie) Brozoski.
“She’s killing it,” Lightning and LuHi coach Rich Slater said of the rising sophomore. “She’s letting the game come to her. She is being patient offensively and her pull-up [jumpshot] has gotten better.”
Brozoski is averaging close to 20 points per game, Slater said, and had gotten help from LuHi guard Najiah Redford and forward Taylor Byrnes. The Lighting face the Georgia Metros 15’s to decide the pool winner 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Capital Sports Complex.