Boys Basketball – St. Anthony’s Savior Akuwovo Transferring to Ranney

For the third straight year, the Ranney School will add an impact player to its program in the form of a Division I prospect.

Class of 2018 center Ogheneyole "Savior" Akuwovo - a 6-foot-9 center who played at St. Anthony last season - will enroll at Ranney for the 2017-18 season, according to a report on ZagsBlog.com.

Akuwovo is the second noteworthy player from last year's St. Anthony team to unofficially land at a new school after the Jersey City institution torch-bearer in N.J. high school basketball announced its closing in April. Fellow senior Ithiel Horton also told Zags Blog he will be attending Roselle Catholic in September.

While Akuwovo competed against Ranney standouts Bryan Antoine, Scottie Lewis and Ahmadu Sarnor when St. Anthony beat the Panthers at the Hoop Group Boardwalk Showcase, he has more recently played with those three and Panthers returnees Alex Klatsky and Chris Autino for Team Rio on the AAU circuit.

Akuwovo currently holds scholarship offers from Seton Hall, St. John's, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Monmouth, Penn, Eastern Kentucky, Brown and Robert Morris.

Ranney is coming off a 22-5 season that included trips to the Shore Conference and NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public B Tournament semifinals. The Panthers are slated to return their entire starting lineup from a year ago and that lineup will most likely include Akuwovo when the season begins. Regardless of whether or not Akuwovo has a bona fide change of address - normally required for a transfer to avoid sitting the first 30 days of the season - he will be able to play right away because the NJSIAA plans to grant waivers to St. Anthony student-athletes.

With a 6-foot-9 shot-blocker to team up with All-Shore guards Antoine, Lewis and Sarnor, Ranney will be among the Tournament of Champions contenders heading into the season, along with Hudson Catholic, Roselle Catholic, the Patrick School, Linden, and others.

Among the list of former St. Anthony players still looking for a new home - and perhaps the most prominent name of the group - is Class of 2019 guard Alexander Rice, who is the son of Monmouth University head coach King Rice and lives in West Long Branch.