Boys Basketball Notebook: Khammassi’s journey to Tunisia pays off for Marple Newtown
NEWTOWN SQUARE — Aziz Khammassi’s junior-year basketball journey wasn’t the one he had originally expected.
Two games into the season in December 2017, the forward let Marple Newtown coach Sean Spratt know that he would be away for most of the next month. He returned to Tunisia, the country of his father’s birth, to visit his sick grandmother. And while there, he got his fill of hoops by trying out for the Tunisian Under-17 team.
“When I went down there, I didn’t think it was going to be anything like here,” Khammassi said this week. “But they had like a 6-10 guy, a lot of good guards, lots of guys getting offers from schools here.”
The disruption to the high school season was a setback last year, but the exposure to a higher level of talent has paid long-term dividends. Khammassi spent two weeks trying out with the Tunisian Basketball Federation (FTBB), and while he didn’t make the final squad for a game, per the FTBB, the experience was important to Khammassi.
Around the 10-game hiatus, he averaged just 2.6 points per game for a Marple Newtown squad that won 13 games, including a late-season push to barge into the District 1 Class 5A playoffs.
This year, Khammassi has made his mark. He’s averaging 10.5 points per game through Wednesday, second on the team. And while it hasn’t translated into wins for the Tigers (4-12), Khammassi has used his trip to amplify his already notable work ethic.
“In years past, he’s usually been block-to-block around the basket, and he’s got great footwork,” Spratt said. “And this year, he was one of two years that after we lost in the playoffs last year, he was in the gym the next day. And from that point, he worked up until the beginning of this year on multiple aspects of his game.”
Part of that stems from his time in Tunis. At 6-4, Khammassi’s height made him a perimeter player in the deeper talent pool in Tunisia, which inspired him to expand his game. It also helped that his offseason training partner is Tommy Gardler, Marple’s leading scorer at 17.3 ppg and one of the county’s top 3-point shooters.
“I was playing guard there so I did a lot of guard skills because they had guys bigger than me,” Khammassi said. “I had to be a big guard. I also used my body as a guard, so I came back here and still do guard stuff sometimes and can be in the post, too.”
“I think he’s turned a corner, definitely,” Gardler said. “All the work is definitely paying off. I expect more from him in college. I think he’s good enough to play somewhere. He’s gotten better at shooting; his post-up moves have gotten better. A lot of teams are looking out for him in scouting reports, and that helps us as a team.”
Khammassi is looking for a place to continue his career in college. His dad, formerly a restaurateur in the States where Khammassi was born, has moved back to Tunisia, so Khammassi is keeping open the possibility to travel back there someday. For now, basketball is a big part of Khammassi’s identity, and the joy he plays with is evident.
“I’m definitely the more serious guy, and Aziz is definitely the guy to lift up everybody’s spirits,” Gardler said. “It was definitely a lot of fun for him.”
“I really love the sport, to any time I get a chance to play it, I’m always down to play it,” Khammassi said. “Especially at the school, I’m a captain here, I’ve got to stay with the team, and me and Tommy are close friends, so I really enjoy it here.”
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Mike Perretta has had two seasons this year: Everything up until Monday, and then Monday night against St. Joseph’s Prep.
Perretta set a Catholic League record with 10 made 3-pointers in the win over Prep. Perretta went 10-for-13 from 3-point range.
The effort falls short of a Delco record, set in 1988 by Chichester’s Clarence Armstrong, who hit 12 3-pointers in a game.
Perretta hadn’t been having a strong season prior to Monday. After a solid junior campaign in which he averaged 5.5 points per game and connected on a team-high 48 triples, Perretta had made just 13 3-pointers in the first 13 games of the 2018-19 season, averaging 3.7 ppg in a restocked Friars backcourt.
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From the stat book: Chester has won eight consecutive games. Among the reasons: Rahmaad DeJarnette is averaging 12 points per game in that streak, and Michael Smith has been in double-figures in each game. … From the “more is not always better” file, Springfield leads Delco with 121 made 3-pointers. It’s one of only three schools to crack the century-mark (Marple Newtown has 100, Cardinal O’Hara has 113). But the Cougars are 0-17 this season. A reason why is that they have more made 3-pointers than 2-pointers (120). And Springfield almost has more made 3s than free throws attempted (150). Also, the record of those three teams with 100-plus 3-point makes this year? 11-39. … Talk about earning it: Christian Ray is Delco’s second-leading scorer at 23.4 points per game. But he’s gotten there the hard way thanks to a 76.1 percent clip at the line (108-for-142). For comparison, that’s just eight fewer free throws attempted than Springfield as a team and not far behind Haverford High (181) and Marple (190).
To contact Matthew De George, email mdegeorge@delcotimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportsdoctormd.
