With the local high school basketball season wrapping up Saturday, a quick look at our local teams – who’s leaving via graduation and who is scheduled to return – first a look at the boys teams.
West Bladen (20-8)
Coach Travis Pait’s Knights received a much lower seed than they deserved in the NCHSAA play-offs and had to travel to play at Goldsboro, a 24-3 team that eventually lost at Fairmont in the third round.
“We were right with there with them in the first half, but a couple of breaks went against us in the third quarter, and they opened up a lead,” said Coach Pait.
For the Knights the season started with a bang as they won 10 of their first 11 games and won championships in their own Woodmen Life Chrismas Tournament and in the East Columbus Christmas Tournament.
West Bladen defeated Whiteville, Midway and a very good Hoke County team in the Woodmen tourney, and defeated South Robeson in the finals at East Columbus.
Losses to Four County champ Heide Trask and Pender were a January hiccup, but the Knights recovered with a big win at powerful Clinton and were 14-3 before losses to Wallace-Rose Hill and Trask again.
West Bladen rebounded with a 6-game winning streak that featured another win over Clinton and conference tournament victories over Midway and Trask. Clinton defeated West Bladen in the Four County Tournament championship.
The Knights lost junior guard Kalvin Page to an injury at Wallace and were 6-4 after that. “Losing Kalvin hurt our depth at guard, and we went to a bigger line-up and a zone defense because of that,” said Coach Pait. “I hate to play zone. I want to play man and pressure but we didn’t have the depth to do it.”
But Coach Pait is looking forward to next year, “Stefan (McDonald) is the only one with huge minutes that we are losing. Malique (McDowell) and Will (Lambeth) gave us some important minutes.”
McDonald led the Knight scoring averaging 15.3 points per game and will be a big loss. Returning are junior forwards Sayaun Dent (14 ppg) and John Bowen (10.2 ppg) and sophmore Shaquille Johnson (9.2 ppg).
Dent was the Woodmen Life Most Valuable Player, can handle the ball and shoot it. Bowen hit the game-winner in overtime against Hoke and is another dangerous shooter. Johnson is a high-flying rebounder who can score as well.
Sophmore center Jonathan Robinson, sophmore guard Jimmy Williams and freshman guard Keshawn Lewis return along with Page.
“Keshawn is going to be really good,” said Pait. “His playing time was hurt by the injury to Kalvin when we went to the big line-up. Jimmy is tough and really good defensively. Both Jimmy and Keshawn have huge upsides.”
Robinson provided size and help inside.
“Naturally you want to win every game you play, but considering what we graduated last year, if you had told me that we were going to win 20 games at the start of the year, I would have took it,” said Coach Pait. “Especially with the loss of Kalvin.”
East Bladen (6-17)
It was a tough season for the Eagles and Coach Ken Cross. East Bladen posted 3 wins over East Columbus, 2 over Union and one against Pender, but the Eagles came very close to some other wins.
East Bladen was a point down at Midway with 2 minutes left in December, then led the Raiders 20-3 at East before letting both games get away. In their first meeting with West Bladen, the Eagles led until the final 2 minutes of the third quarter, and the return match at East came down to a last second free throw.
The biggest one that got away was the Wallace-Rose Hill game at East that the Eagles led 40-15 in the second quarter. However the Bulldogs rallied and won the game on a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“The kids played hard in that one,” said Coach Cross. “You can’t fault their effort.”
Senior Jermaine Robinson (9.9 points per game) led the Eagle scoring. Other seniors were center Chris Cromartie (4 ppg), and forwards Dayvon Powell (5.5 ppg) and Trevor Lloyd.
Returning are high-flying guards Ethan Hines (9.4 ppg) and Eian Hines (9.5 ppg) who also provide rebounding help. Junior Denzel Johnson (7.6 ppg) is a 3-point bomber, and freshman Adonis Avery (3.4 ppg) can also shoot the 3-ball.
Junior guard Demetrius Wooten, junior center Derrick Burney and sophmore Sincere Smith (5.3 ppg) also return. Smith is a hard-working rebounder who found his shot late in the year with 13-point games against Wallace-Rose Hill and Union.
About Author
