Small in enrollment, IDEA Public Charter School proving big in results at Panther Classic

A small charter school from northeast Washington D.C. in making some big noise this week in Myrtle Beach.

IDEA Public Charter School cruised to a second blowout in as many days on Tuesday night, outpacing Somerset (Pa.) 92-60 in the quarterfinals of the Panther Classic at Carolina Forest High School.

“Charter schools in D.C. pretty much take up most of the city,” IDEA coach James Pope said. “Not because of sports , but because of education.”

The school, which has an enrollment of about 300 students, has smaller class sizes and “We are more in-depth with the kids,” Pope said.

With a packed lineup of raw size in the frontcourt and swarming sharpshooters in the backcourt, IDEA is coming off it’s first D.C. charter school league championship since the school opened in 1998.

The Timberwolves (5-7) have size underneath with 6-foot-9 junior Stefon Fisher and 6-7 senior Kierell Green. Fisher is playing his first full season of basketball and has already garnered interest from Monmouth and Wake Forest, and Green, who is playing in just his second season, has an offer from Concordia.

It’s the talented guards who control the game, though. Daryl Bones, the D.C. Charter School league Player of the Year in 2015, is drawing interest from West Virginia, and Tunde Scrivner, a 5-10 junior, was the leading scoring in Washington D.C. last season.

“We like to have fun, and that’s what basketball is all about,” Pope said. “That’s the way I coach them and that’s the way our guys play.”

Scrivner showed that explosiveness Tuesday, opening the game with the first of his three 3-pointers and driving layup as the Timberwolves charged out an early 9-0 lead while Somerset struggled to find a shooting touch.

The Eagles (6-2) missed the first six shots from the field and were down 11-2 before Bryce Funa warmed up, stroking 3-pointers on three straight trips down the court. Somerset added 3s from Dylan Barnes and Braxton Meehleib during an 18-9 run that evened the score at 20 with under 9:00 left in the first half.

That’s when Scrivner took over, adding a pair of 3s of his own and leading a swarming defense that double- and triple-teamed the Eagles on nearly every touch, setting off a string of errant passes and turnovers and sparking a 35-9 run the rest of the half that deflated Somerset.

“Organized mayhem is what I guess you could call it,” Pope said. “We like to press a lot, we like to get up and down, but at the same time it’s organized. It’s not street basketball. I’m trying to teach them fundamentals, how to run plays, different angles when we are trapping, things like that.”

Scrivner finished with a team-high 18 points, Bones had 17 and Miguel Palacio had 10. Funa led all scorers with 20 points, including six 3-pointers, and Dylan Barnes added 10 points.

IDEA, which defeated Myrtle Beach 88-64 on Monday, will face Darlington on Wednesday in the semifinals.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Small in enrollment, IDEA Public Charter School proving big in results at Panther Classic."