Know Your Team: Jamal Reynolds

Cape Breton Highlanders

6’4

Guard

From Pickering, Ontario

Canadian native Jamal Reynolds has seen success in basketball from a young age and is now showing star qualities in the NBL Canada. His team, the Cape Breton Highlanders, will now be hoping some of his early success will start rubbing off on them.

Reynolds' first basketball triumph came with his high school team, the Pine Ridge Pumas. In his senior year he averaged 29.8 points, 6.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game on his way to being named league MVP.

Also in his youth, he was named to the Canadian Under-18 national team which went on to win the Bronze medal at the 2012 FIBA Americas championship, where they defeated Argentina 68-66 in third place decider.

It was these early successes that won him a spot with the MCC Bears in Flint, Michigan, for whom he played two years. He then made the move to Buffalo, New York and NCAA Division 1, joining the Canisius Golden Griffins. He started in every game first year and averaged 7.1 points and 6.6 rebounds – the best Golden Griffins debut for more than 20 years – as well as finishing second on team for double-doubles.

After averaging 5.2 points and 4.9 rebounds for Canisius in his senior year, Reynolds turned professional and made his debut with the Cape Breton Highlanders. In 37 games off the bench, he averaged 8.0 points and 4.5 rebounds - notably finishing in the top 20 for offensive rebounds in the 2017-18 season.

After an impressive debut season, the Highlanders were keen to retain Reynolds for the 2018-19 season. So far that has proved to be a wise transaction for the team, as Reynolds has produced 17.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game for them.

In addition, he is also averaging above 50% in both field and three-point shooting and is in the top ten for rebounds across the league. If he continues this form, the Highlanders have every reason to keep expecting great things from him.