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Driving
PSA's Jonte Rutty drives to the hoop in recent contest against Notre Dame Prep. Courtesy photo.
By Ron P. Coderre
Putnam Science Academy post graduate basketball standout Jonte Rutty verbally committed to playing basketball for Georgian Court University in Lakewood, N.J. The announcement was made on the PSA basketball twitter account Feb. 19.
Rutty, who came to PSA from Newburgh Free Academy in New York where he helped his team to the 2011 Section 9 Class AA championship, has been an impact player on the 2012-2013 Mustangs team which recently completed a 22-8 season by capturing the 2013 Northeast Prep Basketball Tournament.
“Jonte is a pure shooter who can spark a team because he’s capable of putting points on the board in a hurry,” said PSA coach Tom Espinosa.
This season, Rutty was the team’s third leading scorer averaging 11 points a game, while corralling four rebounds per contest. His biggest asset was his ability to score beyond the three-point arc, where he led the area with 76 treys.
In moving on to Georgian Court University, Rutty will become part of an historic team at the New Jersey school. The 2013-2014 Lions of Coach Enrico Mastroianni will be the first male basketball team in the history of the school, which is going co-educational after a long history as an all-female Catholic university. The Lions will compete in the NCAA on the Division II level in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.
“I’m very happy for Jonte, as he’s been a great teammate on the team all season. One of the main reasons he came to our school was to get more visibility as a player and to avail himself of the opportunity to play at the next level,” said Espinosa.
The 6-foot, 5-inch Rutty should add versatility to the Georgian Court frontcourt as he’s capable of handling all three ‘big man’ positions. He offers mismatch potential as well as his innate ability to knock down the long range three.
Rutty is the second PSA player this year to accept a college scholarship, joining Dayshon Smith who earlier committed to coach Archie Miller and the University of Dayton Flyers. Rutty is also the second member of his family to play college basketball, following in the footsteps of his older brother Justin, a 2011 graduate of Quinnipiac University where he starred for coach Tom Moore’s Bobcats.