Sports

Boys Hoops: Youth is Served at Flintridge Prep

Freshman point guard Robert Cartwright is making an impact on the Rebels, who host Pasadena Poly on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

It’s not all that often that you see a team with expectations as high as those of tie its championship dreams to a freshman floor general. It’s equally rare that you see said rookie not only handle the pressure but excel against competition two to three years his elder.

But Rebels starting point Robert Cartwright guard isn’t your average 15-year-old hoopster. Through 20 games this season, Cartwright is averaging 11.7 points and 4.3 assists per game, proving he’s more than capable of running the show at Flintridge Prep. And if the Rebels (ranked No. 1 in CIF-Southern Section Division 5AA) beat rival Pasadena Poly in Friday's 7:30 p.m. Prep League showdown at Flintridge Prep, you can be sure that Cartwright had a hand in the result.

Not that his success should come as much of a shock, it certainly doesn’t surprise Cartwright.

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“It’s something that I have been preparing for, for a long time,” Cartwright said of his role with the Rebels.

Cartwright first started playing basketball when he was just a 4 year old at home shooting on a Fisher Price hoop, but it didn’t take long for him to move up the competitive ranks of AAU basketball. At the age of 10 he played on the ARC 10s, who made it to nationals. Then at 12, he helped lead the ARC Gorillas to a fourth place finish in the 12U AAU Nationals.

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Those experiences helped mold Cartwright into the player he is today, and when Rebels coach Garrett Ohara first got a glimpse of Cartwright when he was just a seventh grader at Flintridge Prep, he saw a player high in skill and not lacking in confidence after years of AAU hoops.

“Not only did Rob have the talent but he also had this poise and this brashness,” Ohara said.

A certain degree of cockiness is a must for a freshman to be able to step in at the varsity level and not feel overwhelmed by the situation. But a freshman also has to find his place on a veteran team and prove that he belongs. That’s something that Cartwright struggled with at first, said Rebels star senior center Kenyatta Smith.

“It was just the whole little ‘I can take on anybody I can do anything,’ ” Smith said. “But it came to the point where we started practicing and he realized that he can’t — that he’s a freshman first-year varsity (player). It’s going to take some time, it’s still a process, but he’s adapted really well to that and made a lot of changes to his attitude and to his game. He’s matured a lot.”

If Cartwright still felt the need to prove himself to his teammates at the start of the season, his performance in his first game put to rest any lingering skepticism. Cartwright went 4-for-5 from 3-point range and scored 16 points in the Rebels’ season-opening win over Monrovia.

“At the beginning of the game I’m not going to lie, I was really nervous about what was going on,” Cartwright said of his debut. “Just when I made my first 3, I was glad. I settled down and just stated hitting a couple others, it was really nice to have a pretty good game right off the bat.”

Said Ohara: “That’s a rare achievement by any player. So for him to do that in his first game really sent an early message that, ‘Hey, I belong at this level.’ ”

After that, there was no doubting Cartwright’s ability.

He’s the Rebels’ top 3-point option, shooting 41 percent on the year, and at 5-foot-11 he has the size to be an impact player on both ends of the court.

“His size … has helped him both defensively and offensively,” Ohara said. “Defensively, he’s able to guard some bigger kids not just a smaller point guard.”

Ohara said Cartwright doesn’t shy away from tough defensive assignments — in fact, he asks for them — and on Friday he’ll be responsible for checking Poly star senior Daniel Wohl, a first team All-CIF selection last year.

“I do (want to guard Wohl),” Cartwright said. “I just enjoy the fact that if my offensive game isn’t working, I can take out their best offensive player.”

At first it’s seems unusual to hear such a young player speak with such confidence about a matchup with one of the area’s best guards, but after a few minutes it’s clear that's just Cartwright being Cartwright. When it comes to basketball, he’s supremely self-aware of his abilities to the degree that he said that the success he’s enjoyed this year has not come as a surprise.

Cartwright expects big things from himself on the court and said that his ultimate goal is to get a scholarship to play Division I basketball.

“Honestly my goals are to be one of the better point guards around, a guy who’s really well known everywhere,” Cartwright said.

And just so you don’t think that’s just more bold talk, consider what his coach said when asked to speculate on just what a senior Cartwright might look like.

“He’s going to be something special, definitely, because he has the tools to get it done offensively. I think he’ll be quite a scorer,” Ohara said. “Looking into the future in four years, I can’t wait to see what that’s going to look like.”


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