Karon Abraham, a 5-foot-9, 150-pound combo guard from Paterson (NJ) Eastside High, has verbally committed to Robert Morris after taking an official visit there this weekend.
“I verballed today,” Abraham, who averaged 18.5 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds last season, said by phone. “They were the ones who showed the most interest. They really wanted me there, they said I was their first recruit as a guard. They said if I verbal they would stop recruiting all other guards and they would focus on big men after me. They were ready to have me up their next year and lead their team.”
Abraham, who joins 6-5, 215-pound forward James Stukes from Rice in Robert Morris’ recruiting class, also considered East Tennessee State and Long Island University. Now he can just focus on his senior season at Eastside, which last year lost to Paterson Catholic in the Passaic County title game and won the North 1, Group 4 sectional title.
“Now I’m just focusing on basketball,” he said. “I just work out, have a great senior year and don’t stop and continue.”
Abraham is a strong 3-point shooter and also improved his mid-range pull-up game. He led Passaic County in scoring as a sophomore at Manchester, averaging 22.2 points per game. As a junior, he scored 20 points when Eastside beat Kennedy in the North 1, Group 4 quarters and tallied a game-high 21 points in the Group 4 state semifinal loss to Piscataway.
“Karon Abraham is probably, if not the best guard in the county, he’s one of them,” Kennedy coach Jim Ring said then. “And he it showed it again today against us. We have to find an answer for him, otherwise he’s going to give us trouble next year, too.”
Abraham helped his recruiting stock when he excelled this summer in Las Vegas while playing with the Playaz Basketball Club.
Eastside returns Abraham, guard Bryant Lewis and forward David Robertson, but lost guard Antoine Alexander to crosstown rival Kennedy, which also picked up Asmar Edwards from Passaic Tech.
“They’re gonna be pretty good,” Abraham said of Kennedy. “They’re still gonna have to learn how to share the ball.”
In other Passaic County news, Paterson Catholic picked up a transfer in 6-8, 200-pound sophomore Derrick Randall, a big man with nice touch around the hoop who comes over from Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn last year. He joins a talented group of Division I prospects in juniors Fuquan Edwin, Trevor Clemmings, Shaq Thomas, Jayon James and Jermaine Peart, as well as sophomore point guard Myles Mack and freshman point guard Kyle Anderson.
