West Bladen’s Boys and East Bladen’s Girls dominated the sports highlights for the first quarter of 2015.
Four County Conference Player of the Year Lacey Suggs (pictured, right) fired in 22 points per game to lead the Lady Eagles to a perfect 14-0 league record and the Four County Conference Championship. The Lady Eagles reeled off 26 straight wins before losing 49-41 to Class 2A East champion Kinston in the Sectional Finals.
Other members of the All-Four County Conference team were center Imani Turner-Dobson and guard Abby Ward from East Bladen and forward Delasia Richardson and guard Miriam Mendoza from West Bladen. The Lady Knights finished third in the Four County and made the Class 2A play-offs.
Four County Conference Player of the Year Rahu Purdie (pictured, left) tossed in 18.5 ppg and led the Knights to an 11-3 league record and the Four County Championship. The Knights reached the Sectional Finals but were eliminated 58-54 by Eastern Class 2A runner-up Fairmont and finished with a 22-5 record.
Other All-Four County team members were West Bladen’s Malcolm Vaught and Stefan McDonald and East Bladen’s Farrell Murchison. The Eagles reached the Class 2A play-offs but lost in the first round to West Bladen.
East Bladen senior Abbey Norris was named a finalist for the U. S. Army-Pro Football Hall of Fame Award for Excellence. Norris was one of 20 high-school athlete finalists for the award which highlights the achievements of student-athletes across the country.
Norris (pictured, right) was a three-sport athlete. She was named the 2014 Four County Conference Volleyball Player of the Year, started at forward on East Bladen’s 26-1 basketball team and was a first baseman and clean-up hitter on the softball team.
East Bladen Coach Patty Evers recorded her 400th basketball coaching victory when the Lady Eagles defeated West Bladen 57-20 in their regular season finale. “The 400 wins was one of our goals for the season,” said Coach Evers. “But I was more interested in this team’s going undefeated and getting to the state championship game.”
East Bladen grad Jazmine Kemp (pictured, left) was named to the Peach Belt Conference All-Academic Women’s Basketball Team. She was UNC-Pembroke’s lone representative on the team. Kemp also joined the 1,000 point club at UNC-P as she scored 8 first-half points in a win over GRU-Augusta. She became the 20th member of the club and joined her sister JaToya on the UNC-Pembroke honors list.
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