By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
sullyglorydays@gmail.com
When Reese Downey began her high school basketball career four years ago, she could have easily been mistaken for the team’s manager, or stat keeper. She certainly didn’t look like a player who would go one to become one of the best in South Jersey and eclipse the 2,000-point mark.
She was shy, all of about 14 years old, going up against 18-year-old seniors who in a few months would be in college. Yet she came out firing, and hasn’t stopped since. All she did in the first game she ever played was drop 18 points in a 49-16 drubbing of Vineland, nailing four 3-pointers and picking up three assists and three steals as well.
“I was definitely scared in my first game, but I had a lot of good seniors who I looked up to. And I had been playing travel basketball before that, so I knew how fast (the pace) would be,” Downey said. “I remember in one of our first games, against Atlantic City, we were going up against (current Mississippi State forward) Quanirah (Montague) and I was scared to death. I got my shot blocked like five times and I was like, ‘OK, so this is high school basketball.’”
Despite the nerves, Downey started her career with a string of 12 straight games in which she scored in double figures, and during her freshman year she scored in double figures in all but four games, with a season-high 31 in a win over Bridgeton.
She scored 426 points as a freshman, and has increased that number in each season since. Heading into this year’s state playoffs, Downey has 604 points in 26 games — an average of 23 points per game. The numbers are off the charts — 311 made 3-pointers, more than 500 rebounds, nearly 500 assists, and 500-plus steals in 107 games played.
But Downey is so much more than the numbers, as she’s elevated Absegami to be one of the toughest teams to beat in the Cape-Atlantic League, and during her career the Braves have become a perennial threat in South Jersey Group 3. And she’s done all that while facing double- and sometimes triple-team defenses, as opposing teams’ No. 1 goal is to keep Downey from scoring.
“She’s put a lot of work in. This year is the most she’s ever done in the weight room, and I told her, ‘you have to be bigger and stronger this year. We’re going to ask a heck of a lot more from you this year than we ever have before,” said Absegami coach Bob Lasko.
One of the things that makes Downey such a great player is that she’s such an unselfish player and always looks to get her teammates involved. The Braves lost Julia Hartman, their other top scorer, to knee injuries the last two years and they have a freshman in Emma Grimley starting at one of the guard positions. Lily Ortiz is the only other senior on an otherwise young roster, which means a lot of the scoring onus has been on Downey this season.
She certainly has responded to the challenge. She has scored in double figures in every single game, and even recorded a triple double in a win over Hammonton, going for 29 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Downey also has recorded double figures in steals in three games this year and hit 79 threes.
“Everybody knew she could handle the ball and shoot a little bit, but I saw a kid who could do things that other girls can’t do,” Lasko said. “She can shoot off the dribble and if you give her some space she can find a soft spot (in the defense) and knock it down. I didn’t know exactly how far she could take that, but I kept telling her, ‘shoot first, pass second. Make them stop you before you pass the ball.’ That’s the concept we’ve had, especially the last two years, and she’s lived up to the challenge.”
“I knew as a freshman that I really needed to step up because Coach Bob told me from the beginning that I needed to be the point guard and needed to take on that role,” Downey said. “So, from the beginning I knew I had to be a leader and just play the best I could every game.”
Going from star freshman to team leader was a work in progress, however. Downey isn’t the type of player who relishes the spotlight, and during every postgame interview she’s quick to give credit to the teammates who surround her. She doesn’t crave attention — but when you score like she does, attention becomes your dance partner whether you like it or not.
“She struggles a lot with that. I think toward the end of her junior year she started realizing we need her to shoot more. I think we bumped heads a lot last season,” Lasko said. “But as the year went on, she took more of an aggressive stance toward scoring. I think her coming out party was when we played Clearview in the playoffs and she just didn’t miss. She had 33 points, and since then she understands she has to shoot, and she’s really asserted herself.”
“I thank my teammates for believing in me and Coach Bob for letting me take over as much as I could,” said Downey, who’s committed to play college basketball at Fairleigh Dickenson University. “I want to thank my team for helping me get to all these milestones because I wouldn’t be able to do it without them. We’re all pretty close and it makes everything so much easier and more fun.”
As a freshman, Downey helped lead Absegami to a 16-10 record that included a win in the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament and two state playoff victories before the Braves were stopped in the sectional semifinals by Mainland Regional. As a sophomore, she led the Braves to appearances in the league and state quarterfinals, but as a junior she really shined when Absegami made a surprising run to the South Jersey Group 3 title game, scoring a heart-pumping, 51-49 road overtime win at Moorestown in the semifinals. In that game Downey showed off her array of skills, as she hit a pair of 3-pointers, scored 12 points, added six rebounds, five assists and seven steals.
Scoring 12 points in a semifinal game might not sound all that impressive, but considering the kind of defense she was facing, against a very athletic Moorestown team, sheds a little more light on her performance. But she’s faced immense defensive pressure her entire career, and has come through time and again.
“I don’t think people really understand how hard it is to score that many points when every time you dribble past half court there are two girls waiting for you, and when you’re off the ball there are people face-guarding you,” Lasko said. “When the ball is not in her hands sometimes we have trouble getting it back to her because they’ll have a girl spying on her and one face-guarding her. She has to work that much harder to get the ball.”
Downey has certainly come a long way in the last four years, growing from a shy 14-year-old to a confident senior who looks ready to compete at the next level. She has one more chance to add to her legacy with the 2025 state playoffs.
“I just hope people remember me as a good leader,” Downey said, referring to that legacy she hopes to leave behind. “That I held my own every game, playing my best each game and trying my hardest, and wasn’t about myself, that I was a team player.”
“She doesn’t worry about missing anymore,” Lasko said. “Even if she misses shots, if we’re going down, we’re going down swinging. She’s all grown up now and she’s one tough competitor.”
