GROVE CITY — From Portersville Christian to Grove City College.

From shooting guard to power forward.

It's been quite a basketball transition for Zelienople resident and GCC freshman Elijah White.

He scored 1,990 points in his prep career at Portersville. White was a pure scorer as a big guard. He stands 6-foot-7.

“Elijah was a standout there, but the competition wasn't all that good,” Grove City basketball coach Steve Lamie said. “He was dominating because he was a good athlete.”

Lamie first learned of White through GCC assistant baseball coach Kyle Sasala, a Seneca Valley graduate whose family attends the same church.

While Portersville Christian does not have a baseball team, White pitched for Cranberry in the Eagle County League and was recruited by Eagles baseball coach Matt Royer.

“Kyle told me (White) was a basketball player. He had been recruiting him strictly for baseball at that juncture,” Lamie said. “When we recruited him for basketball, he was a good athlete. He was just raw.”

White wasn't sure he'd make it as a Division III college basketball player.

“It was a chance to play two sports in college and that looked like fun,” White said.

White played fall baseball for Grove City before joining the basketball team in the preseason. While Lamie said he had “no bad habits to break,” White still had a long way to go.

“He had good hands, good feet, but he was like a blank slate,” the coach said. “He turned out to be a fast learner.”

When White saw his first action as a collegian in a junior varsity game at Pitt-Titusville, the results weren't good.

“I didn't even know what was going on,” he admitted. “I was horrible. I felt lost out there.”

Lamie saw the same picture.

“We were running a flex offense. He didn't know the offense,” the coach said. “It was pretty awful.At that point, I thought if we worked with him and he showed progress, Elijah could help us by his junior year.

“He advanced way ahead of that curve.”

White said he worked on learning Grove City's system — and the nuances of playing power forward — to a degree that it all became second nature to him.

He did more than grow into the system. He made it part of his life.

“I studied it so hard, I could do it in my sleep,” White said.

The effort was there. Opportunity soon followed.

One player quit the team during Chrstmas season. Another got injured. White progressed enough to get into the regular rotation off the bench.

He wound up averaging seven minutes per game, sank 14 field goals, shot 50 percent from the floor and contributed on the boards. Grove City went 21-9, won its first Presidents' Athletic Conference Tournament since 2010 and won a game in the NCAA Division III tourney.

“Elijah went from having to be pulled off the floor in a junior varsity game to playing meaningful minutes in a Division III national tournament game,” Lamie said. “In my (22) years of coaching here, I've never seen a player progress like that in the course of one season.”

White couldn't believe it himself.

“I never thought I was gonna play,” he said. “I was just enjoying being a member of the team.

“But it was a cool process. The other guys on the team really helped me along the way and I wound up helping them. It all worked out.”

White remained dedicated to the program as well. He joined the baseball team for its winter Florida trip, but left the team to return to Grove City for the NCAA basketball tournament.

A tall left-hander with an improving fastball, White looks to have a solid baseball future at Grove City as well.

“Elijah is a quick learner who showed accountability. He's just worked his tail off,” Lamie said. “He is so coachable and he's playing with self-confidence now.

“We've got ourselves an effective basketball player for a few years because of all those things.”