Lillie Alston is ready to take the reins for the Ewing High School girls basketball team.
The senior guard was one of the main cogs for the Blue Devils last year as they figured out how to play without three of the best players in program history. It was an adjustment for Alston and the team and the lessons of that year have set her up for a big final scholastic season before she plays at the University of Hartford.
“Going in with a lot of pressure and thinking that you have to do this and you have to do that, it’ll mess you up,” Alston said. “And I feel like last year that’s how I came in. I came in thinking, oh, I gotta do this, I gotta do that for my team, instead of just being a team player and counting on my teammates and knowing that they can help me. So this year I know my teammates, I know what we can do, and I have no worries.”
Ewing opened the season with an encouraging 68-55 win over Notre Dame, the team that defeated them last year in the Colonial Valley Conference tournament championship, the successor to the former Mercer County Tournament. Ewing had won three straight MCT titles, and the Blue Devils have the balance and drive to return to the top this year. In the opener, four players scored in double figures led by Ariana Wadley’s 17 points. Alston, Analis Maldonado and London Bennett all had 14 points apiece.
“We have a very good team, a very good starting five,” Alston said. “Everyone does a little bit of everything. It’s never just one person doing something. We all contribute. And I feel like we definitely will be better than we were last year.”
Ewing graduated Mekyla Durham and Malayah Miller, who were strong all-around players, but the Blue Devils return their five top points scorers from a year ago, and while Durham and Miller were very good rebounders too, Ewing still has leading rebounder Taylor Williams, Alston and Bennett back, all of whom had more than 100 total rebounds a year ago. The Blue Devils hope to see improvement in slowing teams down.
“Defensively, when you look at our scores from last year, we put up a lot of points, but we also gave up a lot of points,” said Ewing coach Dan Montferrat. “W bring back all these youngins that now it’s another year of the game speed they’ve caught up to, understanding that your defense sets the tone for your offense and rebounding. There’s been a real concentrated effort in our first, eight or nine practices here of effort in defensive drills and high energy and rebounding drills.”
Alston returns to lead the team with a 12.9 points per game average to go with 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Those numbers represented a huge jump from her 5.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game when she started as a sophomore surrounded by a ton of talent.
“They taught me a lot,” Alston said. “They taught me how to be a leader. They taught me how to basically be able to do the things I’m doing now for my team. And that’s lifting them up, making us want to be better. They just taught me how to be a leader.”
Alston feels comfortable as a leader, and with so much back and so much familiarity with her teammates this season, she’s even more comfortable. Bennett was the team’s second-leading scorer last year as a freshman, Williams brings some scoring as well as he rebounding, Wadley returns for her junior year after a solid sophomore campaign and Maldonado is another sophomore who was a solid scoring option in her first year of high school. They’ve been gelling better this year.
“I feel like everyone’s mindset changed,” Alston said. “We started working more as a team instead of being selfish, passing the ball more, looking for that open person.”
The Blue Devils got a jump on developing more chemistry in a busy offseason. After going 14-13 last year, 6-1 in the CVC Colonial Division including a regular-season win over Notre Dame, Ewing took advantage of a number of playing opportunities. They played together in the Point Pleasant summer league, the No Boyz Allowed fall league and the Rare Footage Classic in October. Alston has seen a switch flip in the team and a real benefit to how they’re playing together.
“All those games, all that experience now, even before we hit game one, is big,” Montferrat said. “Because now you’ve seen what it feels like to be in an adverse situation against a really good opponent. You’ve played with leads, you’ve played down, so all these different scenarios that you get.”
Each year has been an opportunity to learn and grow for Alston. She’ll be counted on as more of a team leader this year, and she helps to set the standard for how the Blue Devils want to play.
“She’s a tone setter with defense and energy and just the passion that she plays with,” Montferrat said. “Offensively, now with all these different players that are comfortable with all these different roles, she gets to facilitate a little bit. She gets to let the game come to her and not feel like, I got to put the team on my back here and go get 20 every night. She can give out another five or eight assists and get some help from everybody all-around.”
Alston is looking forward to a big final season. She’s been developing her game for this year and her future.
“I worked a lot on my shooting, doing my free throws,” she said. “Last year, my free throw percentage wasn’t that good. I’ve been working on that the most, working on shooting, working on moving off the ball, all of that. Everything just to make myself available for my teammates and to also see my teammates because sometimes I could be a little selfish. But I’ve been working on just passing the ball more, looking for that open person.”
She’s a more complete player than when she came into Ewing. She can lead by example with the way she’s approached each season. She’s learned to handle the demands of each year and elevate her play and she has the tools to do so again this winter.
“Her offensive game has really grown,” Montferrat said. “She’s patient, she shows a lot of poise under pressure, she’s strong in her finishes, her shooting has improved too over the offseason. She’s really taking the time to work on those little things in her game we talked a lot about, like her getting to the line and how free throws should be almost automatic for somebody like her and she really took a lot of that constructive criticism and put it to work in the offseason I think she really fine-tuned it.”
Alston is continuing to develop her game as she looks to compete at the next level. After interest from a number of schools, she committed to Hartford, which had some of the most interest in her early led by head coach Jackie Smith.
“It’s a big achievement for me,” Alston said. “I never really thought that I would be where I am today. And it’s just a blessing that I am. And I’m very excited to play for Hartford next year and be under Coach Smith is just truly a blessing.”
Playing Division I basketball has taken years of work. When Alston was a freshman, she missed part of the season due to injury, but it inspired her to put more time into her game. She returned as a starter on a team with three D1 players and she wondered to herself is she could ever be as good as they were. When a local newspaper commended her for her defense, her confidence rose and she came back in a starring role last year that helped to open the door to her commitment to Hartford. She’s excited for the challenge of the next level after Ewing.
“I know I need to contribute defense,” she said. “The way I attack the basket, I think that could really be a big help, and just bringing my leadership energy to Hartford.”
Alston and the Blue Devils will have plenty of chances to develop through another challenging schedule. Outside of the CVC, Ewing is taking on some big hitters. They were to play powers like Shore, Trinity Hall and Hillsborough even before the New Year. West Orange, Camden Catholic, Immaculata, Wildwood Catholic, Paterson Eastside, Marlboro and Voorhees all loom in 2026.
“Playing these harder teams makes us play harder and it’s showing us what it’s going to be at the next level because a lot of these teams that we play have people who are going on to the D1 level, D3, D2,” Alston said. “And it’s just a really good experience, even for our lower classmen to get a chance to play against teams like this because all it’s doing is getting you better and getting you prepared for what’s in the future.”