A Triumph of Talent and Tenacity
And to close out his high school basketball career, Peddie varsity boys basketball’s Noah Payne ’24 eclipsed a significant milestone, reaching more than 2,000 career points. After scoring 789 points during his freshman and sophomore years at Eastern Regional High School in southern New Jersey, Payne finished his junior and senior years with 1,260 points as a Falcon.
“He was already really good at scoring the basketball and connected to the basket more than any other player I’ve ever coached,” Head Coach Joe Rulewich said. “But what he’s had to do here, but also has embraced here, is every other part of the game.”
Payne was honored as The Trentonian Boys Basketball Prep Player of the Year. The Trentonian highlighted Payne’s exceptional performance, stating, “Peddie’s Noah Payne is our Prep Player of the Year as the 6-foot-2 guard was one of the most unstoppable scorers in the state with 25.9 points per game to lead the Falcons to a 15-13 record. He was also a great facilitator, defender and team leader.”
As many in the stands at Peddie have seen over the past two years, Payne has a knack for scoring in multiple ways and when his team needs it the most.
In a home game against The Hun School of Princeton on February 15, Payne tallied point number 2,000 on a 3-pointer with 7:34 remaining in the fourth quarter.
This season’s captain and leading point scorer has made strides from beyond the arc this past season, and it’s shown.
Coach Joe Rulewich (right) said that Payne connects to the basket more than any other player he’s coached.
Rulewich is most proud that Payne led the team in 3-point percentage this past season, at just under 34 percent, with the most attempts.
“It’s really frustrated him and driven him as a competitor, but it’s a testament to not only working at it, which he has, tirelessly, but he’s also a gamer, and he makes shots,” Rulewich explained. “The combination of putting in the work in the gym, but also stepping up to hit big shots, that’s how you get to that points milestone. I’m proud of him for that because he’s good at so many other things.”
For the 6’2″ point guard, the feat has not set in quite yet.
“Scoring 2,000 points is not really real to me yet because that’s a ton of points when you think about it,” he said. “Coach Rulewich pointed out that that’s a lot of shots to get to 2,000, but it’s a lot of points.”
Payne’s favorite moment of his Peddie career occurred right in his home gym this past season.
“Winning the PSIT Championship is easily my favorite moment at Peddie,” Payne, the tournament’s MVP, said. “We made history, so I think that was great, and I feel like we’re a special team. That memory will forever be in my mind.”
Payne has seen growth within himself since arriving at Peddie as a junior.
“Maturity-wise, I’ve come a long way realizing the bigger picture sometimes, even when I may be frustrated,” Payne said. “When you’re a point guard, you have to manage certain people’s personalities and make sure they’re ok during the games.”
Rulewich told Payne multiple times this season that the team needed him to be the best version of himself every game. This often meant scoring, but the team also needed him to bring out the best versions of everybody else on the court, which is a significant responsibility.
“The great thing about his game is that he hasn’t even come close to his ceiling,” Rulewich said.
Payne and Braelen Crump ’24, a post-graduate student, are the only Falcons to have played in all 28 games this season.
Having Noah as a teammate was special, Crump said.
“I never thought I would have had the opportunity to share the court with somebody I think of as a brother,” Crump said. “It was a special time, and we were there for each other during all the ups and downs. He provided leadership not only for the team but for me as well. He was always the first one to bring us all back together after tough losses or even in stretches during games when we weren’t shooting particularly well.”
Payne had a “huge” impact on his decision to attend Peddie, on and off the court, Crump added.
“It has been great having Noah as my roommate as well, but this basketball season was even more fun with him than I anticipated,” Crump said. “Noah is a great player, and I always told him whatever he needed me to do in order to help him and us as a team to be more successful, I would do it.”
Payne is grateful to his family for their support, including his father, Tony, and mother, Jennifer, who put the basketball in his hands early. He has loved the sport ever since.
And basketball runs in the family. Tony scored 1,000 points at both Colonia High School and in college at Quinnipiac University. Noah’s sister, Gabriella, played soccer and basketball, and he watched her play since he was young.
The senior’s parents have been in attendance for most of his 2,049 points during his high school career, rarely missing a contest.
“I can count on my hand how many times they missed a game in my high school career, so it’s not really any,” he said. “I can probably name every game they haven’t attended, and it’s probably for a specific reason, such as attending a wedding. They’ve been at every single game this year, even games on the road, including road games in other states such as Massachusetts and Maryland. So that feels great.”
Payne is now looking ahead to his next steps and goals following high school. While he selects a college, he wants to continue working on his craft and stay in the weight room to get stronger.
“I know I’ll have to match the physicality of the game,” he said.
And Rulewich, who was immediately struck by Payne’s competitiveness, wants the best for his student-athlete.
“The great thing about his game is that he hasn’t even come close to his ceiling,” Rulewich said. “He does something at a remarkably high level, which is put the ball in the basket, but he hasn’t even scratched the surface on all the other parts of his game, which is amazing to consider what he’ll look like as a player and a leader in four or five years.”