A trio of McDonald’s All-American nominees helped leave a legacy for the Ewing High School girls basketball program.
Rhian Stokes, Te’Yala Delfosse and Joi Johnson will graduate as the three all-time leading scorers in program history. Another senior, Shawnae Biggs, could make a case for being the best defender in school history. Each one’s individual accomplishments would be remarkable in their own right, but the combination of all of them on the same team made the Blue Devils unique.
“I think we have that trust in each other,” Johnson said. “We believed in each other. I think that comes from playing together so long and knowing what each of us can do and pushing each other to be better because we all believe in each other that much.”
They have played together since sixth grade, and started hearing about their major potential in middle school. Stokes and Johnson have played on the same teams together since second grade. The Blue Devil stars developed together from those early middle school days.
“I don’t really think we play any differently,” Stokes said. “We all just matured in the game of basketball and got stronger and smarter.”
They lived up to the hype and will exit the Blue Devils with a full page of accolades and accomplishments, and a new standard for future teams to target. That’s just on the court. Off the court, they are outstanding students with Stokes, Delfosse and Johnson part of a class that had a combined 4.10 GPA last semester, and all three are slated to play Division I basketball.
“I want to be remembered as a team that gave back to the community, a team that helped the
community and a team that just made the community overall a better place,” Stokes said. “All our accolades, our state championship, our sectional championships, I want that to be remembered forever.”
A transfer last year, Valerie Rivas gave Ewing a fifth senior with experience. Juniors Kyla Durham and Malayah Miller both started during the season, as did sophomore Lillie Alston as injuries hit Ewing. Sophomores C’ianna Brown-Upshur, Brooklyn Ellis, Taylor Williams and freshman Ariana Wadley all contributed.
“This is one of the more successful benches that I’ve had in my five years,” said Ewing head coach Dan Montferrat. “That’s really a tribute to them learning. These kids that were coming off the bench and our fifth starter, they were sponges. They wanted to do well and wanted to do the best they could at any given moment for the seniors.”
Their high school careers began with a COVID-19 pandemic-shortened freshman year, but they began to assert their dominance then, and have continued to build their legacy of winning since then. They have helped continue a 65-game winning streak in Mercer County matches. That enabled them to win four Colonial Valley Conference Valley Division titles, three straight Mercer County Tournament crowns and three more Central Jersey Group III championships as well as the 2023 Group III state championship. This year, they reached the state semifinals before falling to Mainland to cap a 26-6 season.
“It’s exciting,” Montferrat said. “These seniors have left such a legacy and things that make Ewing girls basketball great. And now this sophomore group had two years to learn from them. And this junior group had three years to learn from them.”
Delfosse, Johnson and Stokes were all first-team selections by the CVC Coaches and NJ North/South All-State selections. Delfosse was named the CVC Coaches Player of the Year after closing her career with 1,610 points and more than 800 rebounds. The NJ Gatorade Player of the Year nominee and has come a long way from her freshman year when she was the first player off the bench.
“When I first started playing basketball, I could not shoot,” Delfosse said. “Looking back at all my years, I didn’t even start. I went from a sixth man to a five-star player on a really good team. Looking back, it’s really a blessing for real. I know I put the work in all the time, and it’s showing now. It really just makes me happy, and especially my parents.”
About the only thing that Delfosse didn’t do in her career was get a dunk in a game. A presence inside and out for the Blue Devils, she tried twice this season and once as a junior to dunk.
“The roof would have blown off the gym if she did it,” Montferrat said. “Just the fact that she tried to do it in a game so everybody saw it, there’s just that wow factor to her. That goes for her even off the court. I’ve had her in class. She loves graphic design and photo imaging classes. There’s something special about each of them, but for Te’ they talk about her ceiling, the sky’s the limit.”
Delfosse will continue her career at Michigan. She is looking forward to bonding with her new team and seeing how much she can improve.
“I’m excited to just grow,” Delfosse said. “I know my game is going to extremely go bananas as I keep going higher. I’m all about working. I love to work. The gym is going to be right there. And we’re practicing every day. It’s really what I’m looking forward to.”
Johnson has a similar outlook for her future at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She will suit up for FDU coach Stephanie Gaitley, who coached her mother at St. Joseph’s University.
“I’m excited for the player I’m going to become being coached by such great coaches,” Johnson said. “And waking up and when basketball is what I have to do, when I have to put all the time and dedication into it. I’m just excited to see how far I can take my game. I’m just scraping the surface I believe. I’m excited for the development I’m going to have as a player and a person these next four years.”
Johnson ended her scholastic career with 1,578 points and 1,063 career rebounds. She brought those numbers to Ewing after bucking the family tradition of attending the Pennington School like her older sisters had. Montferrat had been attending Ewing Middle School games and AAU games and saw the potential for the group if they stayed together.
“Monty started putting in my head, we would really love to have her,” Johnson said. “It took a lot of convincing of my parents to say, ‘I don’t think I want to leave Ewing. I think this is where I want to stay.’ So they let me.”
The team wouldn’t have been the same without Johnson. She brought a bit of everything to the squad.
“Joi is such a glue player and glue kid, somebody that is such a great personality,” Montferrat said. “She has such a great rapport with teammates. They all do. But Joi’s personality on the court, she plays with such a hard-nosed mentality and it’s so infectious. All the other kids feed off that. When she was hyped and she had good games, that personality really came through in a lot of what we did.”
Stokes will graduate as the school’s all-time leading scorer. The younger sister of three brothers, Stokes never set out with that goal in mind. She just wanted to be a 1,000-point scorer, but by her junior year she was the first to break the old scoring mark of 1,559 set by Mya Grimes in 2018. Stokes also wasn’t expecting the all-state and McDonald’s All-American nominations that she earned.
“I’m really blessed,” Stokes said. “Those are goals that as a kid I was like, I want to do this, I want to do that, but it was so far out of reach. Once I started getting all this recognition, I realized my dreams as a kid weren’t so farfetched.”
Her next dreams are to see how much she can contribute at the college level. She will continue her career at St. Joseph’s.
“I have to get physically stronger to be able to continuously compete at the next level,” Stokes said. “And I have to keep working on my jump shot. Those are two things that I feel like could potentially hold me back at the next level.”
Nothing held back or held down the high-scoring guard in high school. Stokes was the engine for the Blue Devils. She stood out for taking charge of the team and keeping them organized on the floor and in games.
“Her leadership, she’s the floor general,” Montferrat said. “She’s the point guard and she has such a great eye for the game and for her teammates and moments where she needs to be the decision maker or help a teammate out. I keep saying the same thing, but they all pick each other up so well. They’re all there for each other.”
Not to be forgotten is Biggs. She was a third-team selection by the CVC Coaches, but her impact on the Blue Devils was noticeable as a player that poured her heart and soul into each game.
“Shawnae, her hard work, can-do attitude too, there’s a kid that never demanded the ball, didn’t need to score, but if you count up all the points that the big three scored, she’s probably held opponents that many down,” Montferrat said. “She’s that great, great, great defensive factor for us that’s always blanketing the other team’s best guard.”
Being together for the greatest team ever assembled in program history is something that will stick with them through their futures. They will go their separate ways, but will always remember the place in history.
“I want to take all the bonds that I built through high school with my teammates,” Stokes said. “That’s something I really cherish, and how much the younger girls in Ewing and even in Mercer County look up to me and were inspired to play basketball. That’s something I will always cherish.”
Together, the top scoring trio played together one final time at the North/South All-Star Game at Rutgers Prep on March 17. It was the final time that they represented Ewing High together.
“It was fun,” Delfosse said. “Looking back out of all the years we’ve been playing together, it hits for a second that this is the last time playing with them.”
They start another chapter in the fall. They turn the page from an unmatched legacy to play in college for different schools, the first time they won’t be together on the court.
“It’ll be like their freshman years all over again,” Montferrat said. “You have to go back out there and do the things that make you successful and got you this far. They all work so hard. They’re all gym rats, first in, last out. They all take care of themselves mentally and physically. … Their attention to details and how hard working they are and how dedicated they are to being as good as they can be at all times, I have no doubt they’ll all be successful.”
Members of the 2024 Blue Devils girls’ basketball team.,
