All five Penn High School basketball starters will play collegiately
The 2022-23 edition of the Penn High School boys basketball team had a special senior class.
That special group of the Class of 2023 are all now headed on to the next level to display their collective talents in college.
All five starters for the Kingsmen, who advanced to the Class 4A semistate finale, will lace up their hoops shoes collegiately.
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The unit was led by star guard Markus Burton. The Notre Dame bound backcourt stud led the state in scoring at 30.3 ppg. and finished his brilliant prep career 20th all time in state history with 2,273 points. Burton, who also led the Kingsmen in rebounds (5.7), assists (5.1) and steals (3.6), was crowned Mr. Basketball in April and will lead the Indiana All-Star team versus Kentucky in June.
Burton, who set a Penn record with 909 points his senior season, is just the third player from St. Joseph County to earn Mr. Basketball honors. He is also the first Indiana All-Star on the boys side from Penn.
Joey Garwood, a 6-3 wing player, is headed to Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Garwood, a sweet shooter, was second in scoring at 11.8 ppg. and also averaged 3.6 rebounds per game. He shot 46 percent from 3-point land.
Joe Smith, who was a four year varsity regular for the Kingsmen, has committed to play at DePauw University in Greencastle. Smith, a talented point guard, averaged 10.9 points and 4.3 assists per outing.
Dylan Derda is headed to Judson University in Illinois. The 6-8 forward averaged 5.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest.
Josh Gatete will attend the Air Force Academy. The 6-8 forward averaged 3.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Gatete also had 44 blocked shots for the Kingsmen.
Penn fashioned a 28-2 mark this past season and won the NIC title at 11-0. The Kingsmen won 22 straight games before a 58-57 loss to Kokomo in the Class 4A semistate title game at Michigan City. Their only other loss was to No. 1 and undefeated Ben Davis, who defeated Kokomo for the Class 4A state title.
The Kingsmen led the state in both scoring offense (77.9 ppg.) and in average margin of victory (30 ppg.) in the final year of the illustrious prep coaching career of Al Rhodes. Rhodes, who played at Penn, announced his retirement last month after 42 seasons and 693 wins. He guided Warsaw to a state title in 1984 and coached three Mr. Basketball recipients, including Burton, and Jeff Grose and Kevin Ault at Warsaw.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: All five of Penn High School starters will play college basketball
