Pittsburgh athletes of the week: Penn Hills’ Daivon Stephens, Canon-McMillan’s Tamara Mathis

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, December 27, 2017 | 4:03 PM

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Daivon Stephens

School: Penn Hills

Class: Senior

Sport: Basketball

Claim to fame: Stevens scored 36 points and registered 13 rebounds as Penn Hills defeated McKeesport on Saturday in the JamFest Tournament. He also recorded a triple-double earlier in the week in a win over Norwin with 12 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds. The Indians are 9-0 overall and 3-0 in Section 3-6A to start the season.

What's led to your team's success so far this season?

I would say coach (Dan) DeRose. That's what it is to me. He's the one that's making us play together.

At any point in the game against Norwin did you realize you were getting close to a triple-double?

I didn't know about it until the end of the game. I asked our stat guy what my stats where and he told me. … I was surprised.

Can this team advance further in the postseason than last year's group?

I can see us going farther than last year, but we just have to play together and make our extra passes.

What was the best gift you received over the holiday?

PlayStation 4 and I got NBA 2K, Madden, Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat.

What's your favorite class?

Probably my video production class

Tamara Mathis

School: Canon-McMillan

Class: Junior

Sport: Basketball

Claim to fame: In addition to hitting a halfcourt buzzer beater, Mathis scored 23 points with six assists in a win last week over Montour. Also a standout runner on Canon-McMillan's track team, Mathis holds a 3.6 GPA while leading the basketball team to a 5-2 record.

What's led to your successful season so far?

Coach always says a lot of teams don't know how to stop speed, so he wants us to come out hard and jump on them as soon as you come out so that in the third and fourth quarter they're tired and burnt out, and it's like a track meet back and forth.

Speaking of track, does your background in that sport help with that type of up-tempo system?

The basketball conditioning is somewhat how track was, so it kind of just pushes from a conditioning end. So when it comes to the game we're already in shape and it's easier to run up and down.

You've hit two buzzer beaters in the last two weeks. What's the secret?

Just kind of shoot and pray and hope it goes in.

How are you able to balance athletics and school to maintain such a high GPA?

Coach says even if you're good on the court, when you get into college you have to be able to have the grades to be able to play, so he always says that schoolwork comes first and then basketball will always be there.

What's your favorite holiday movie?

“The Polar Express.” I've just watched it since I was little.

— Alex Oltmanns

Tags: Canon-McMillan, Penn Hills