By Tom Robinson, NEPA Elite News
NEPA Elite Coyle 17U alum and Scranton High School senior Jason Shields committed to a full basketball scholarship from Jefferson University in Philadelphia Friday.
The selection of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II school ended a recruiting process for Shields that extended from the high school preseason, through his senior season at Scranton and into the postseason.
Shields visited Virginia Military Institute and the College of Staten Island between the end of his AAU career and the start of his senior season in high school. Since the Knights ended their season in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state Class 6A quarterfinals, Shields received offers from and made visits to Division II in-state schools Kutztown University, Jefferson and East Stroudsburg University.
Jefferson, which first contacted Shields following the second-round PIAA tournament win over Garnet Valley, wound up being the choice.
“I think it was just the best fit for me in terms of basketball and the school in general,” said Shields, a two-time Lackawanna League Division 1 Player of the Year and all-District 2, first-team selection by NEPABasketball.com.
Shields averaged 21.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game as a senior. He hit 2.5 times per game from 3-point range and shot 70 percent from the line.
The 6-foot-5 Shields finished third in school history with 1,334 points, including a school-record 43 in the District 2-4 Class 6A Subregional finals against Wilkes-Barre Area with the help of 10 made 3-pointers, another school record.
Jefferson went 21-6, including 16-2 in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference during the 2021-22 season.
Shields, who is undecided on a major, visited the school during a trip to Conshocken with a team of NEPA Elite alumni and current players to play in the 60th annual Donofrio Classic. That team reached the semifinals of the 26-team, single-elimination tournament.