Sports

Poll winner Gibson finds new home, success at Truman

Joella Gibon’s commute to Bishop Loughlin was long, intricate and wearing, an hour and 45 minutes from her Bronx home. Just to get there, she needed to take multiple trains, a bus and a long walk to reach the Fort Greene, Brooklyn school a year ago as a freshman.

“It took a lot of time away from studying,” Gibson said. “I used to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and then after school I used to have practice until five and [I would] get home at seven.”

The highly-touted sophomore guard transferred to Truman in search of increased playing time and a chance to improve her grades. Mustangs coach John Bruke is known for getting his athletes college scholarships and The Bronx school is just a 15 minute commute for Gibson.

“I think it was a perfect match,” Burke said. “She needed a varsity program where she could go and play. We needed a quality guard. Truman has benefited greatly. Joella has benefited greatly.”

Gibson had one of her best games of the season recently, scoring 21 points in a win over rival John F. Kennedy. She has provided a needed spark by both attacking the basket and giving the Mustangs another quality outside shooter. Burke credits the edition of her and senior guard Lynda Fields as a big reason for their 10-3 start and first-place position in PSAL Bronx/Man/Queens AA.

“I believe we can go to the Garden,” Gibson.

Her fast start has people taking notice of her abilities. Gibson said she was surprised to be voted the city’s best young girls basketball players in a NYPost.com poll last week. She made a late push past Mary Louis freshman guard Mei-Lyn Bautista. Gibson received 18,037 votes, which was good enough for 43.55 percent of the 41,417 cast. Bautista was second with 16,562 and Molloy’s Nyasha Izizarry was third with 3,579.

“She is a great defender,” Truman senior Krystal Person said. “She really gets a lot of points off the break. She makes us deep.”

Gibson said her mother informed her of her victory and she was surprised and pleased with the support she received. She’s played against many of the players on the list, such as Christ the King’s Sierra Calhoun and Nazareth’s Bianca Cuevas. Gibson always admired them, but also felt she could hold her own with the two dynamic sophomores as well.

“I think it was always a good matchup,” Gibson said. “They were better than me in some parts of the game and I was better than them in some part of the game.”

She, on the other hand, was No. 1 in the poll.

jstaszewski@nypost.com