Could this be the greatest freshman basketball player the Rockford area has ever seen?
Paityn London dribbles at the 3-point line. In front of her are a pair of All-State guards from Galena. London looks at them. She looks at her teammates. She backs up two steps, dribbling with her head up, her eyes looking toward the basket. When she gets enough room, the Freeport Aquin freshman rifles a pass to Megan Holder for a layup.
“She is very team-first, looking for the best scoring opportunity,” Aquin coach Josh Glawe said. “She usually shows a lot of patience. If nothing is there, that’s when she will step up and make her move.”
London is so good in this game she makes No. 1-ranked Galena ditch its zone defense and play man-to-man for the first time this season. After scoring 12 points in four minutes to give Aquin a 22-18 second-quarter lead, she shoots only three times in the last two and a half quarter and undefeated Galena comes back to win 45-34.
More: Rockford’s greatest girls basketball players No. 1: Nothing but respect for Sophie Brunner
But the 5-foot–8 London shows all the skills that make her perhaps the most heralded freshman girls basketball player in area history, including blocking three shots and displaying a very quick release on her 3-pointers.
London finished with 21 points on 7-for-12 shooting, nearly outscoring Galena’s All-State backcourt by herself, as Gracie Furlong had 11 points (on 4-for-11 shooting) and second-teamer Addie Hefel had 14.
“She’s years ahead of where I was at her age,” said Sophie Brunner, perhaps the greatest local player in history who led Aquin to back-to-back 1A state titles and became a three-time first-team All-Pac-12 pick at Arizona State. “She is very talented, very athletic and a very good leader. She’s humble and she cares about making everyone better, which is great.
More: Freeport Aquin star freshman Paityn London shines against pair of All-State guards
It helps that London didn’t grow up alone. Brunner broke into Aquin’s lineup playing with an older sister, Ellen Brunner, who was one year older. London’s sister, Jasmyn, is a senior guard who is one of Aquin’s best players this year.
“She is another me,” Jasmyn said of her little sister. “It’s nice to have that extra support on the court because of how close we are.
“We have been best friends growing up. We have had fights, but at the end of the day she will always be my best friend. We put that on the court as well.”
“It’s special,” Paityn said of playing on the same team with her sister. “We have been talking about it since we were little. Even before we step on the court, we are talking and encouraging each other to play well.
It hasn’t always been easy to be the older sister to a phenom. The tide turned early in this sibling rivalry.
“We always try to compete against each other,” Jasmyn London said. “I always used to block her shots. Now she is the one blocking me.
“As she gets older, she she amazes me every single day. Watching her do moves on the court always amazes me, but I have to keep my focus and not get hyped up and stop what I am doing.”
Paityn London does something of everything for Aquin (9-2). She leads the Bulldogs in scoring (17.4 points), steals (3.9) and blocked shots (1.3) and is second to Holder in rebounds (6.1) and assists (3.1).
She scores twice as much as any teammate, yet she always seems to look for them first.
“When we first started this year, I definitely felt some pressure,” said Paityn London, who received an NCAA Division I offer from Denver in July, four months before her first varsity high school game. “But having my teammates here and having the support system that I have, it’s easy to rely on them.
If Paityn London goes far, it will be as much about her attitude as her skills. That makes her a lot like Brunner, who led Aquin in assists, steals and blocked shots, as well as scoring and rebounding, in Aquin’s two title years in 2012 and 2013.
“I’ve watched (Sophie) since I was little,” Paityn London said. “We went down to state to watch her. I have always looked up to her. When she had her camps here at Aquin or at Eastland, I was always there. She was always giving me pointers, and we would stay late.”
Paityn London learned those pointers well enough to impress a coach with two All-State guards.
“Paityn is going to be a phenomenal player,” Galena coach Jamie Watson said. “She is already a great player right now. She’s just so smooth with the basketball.
“For a kid who is 15 years old, she has an amazing ability to stay controlled. She takes very few bad shots. She waits to take good shots. She just controls everything so well, handling the ball and getting everybody in the right spot.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford area's greatest basketball freshman has team-first mentality
