Central basketball teams in search of strong finishes
Both squads battling to reach AA state playoffs
Pageland – The Central High School boys basketball team lost six seniors from a team that went 17-6 last season. One of those seniors had been on the varsity for five years and another came up 19 points short of scoring 1,000 career points.
That left head coach Desmond Sowell thinking the Eagles could face some early-season struggles.
“Anytime you lose that type of talent it’s not going to be easy,” Sowell said. “However, this next group of guys has worked hard and continued to improve.”
Central won just seven of its first 21 and was 4-5 in Region 5-AA. That has the Eagles in the midst of earning a berth in the state playoffs.
Sowell pointed out the overall record could be flipped to 13-8 and the region mark could be 7-2. Six of their losses have come by five points or less.
“We’re kind of right there,” Sowell said. “We’ve still got to grit our teeth and learn how to win some more basketball games.”
Junior Caden Edmond, who is in his fourth season on varsity, is the only returning starter. He was leading the team in scoring at 16.6 points per game and rebounding at 6.0.
The other four starters are senior Jacob Griffin, senior Tyson Miller, sophomore Tazhir Webber and freshman Dwayne Louallen.
Webber was second on the team in scoring at 14.6 while leading in assists at 2.2. Louallen was averaging 6.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists and a team high 1.8 steals.
Miller was averaging 5.0 points. Griffin was averaging 1.4 points and 2.4 rebounds.
Other Eagles seeing significant playing time have been sophomore Demetrius Myers (4.4 ppg), junior Keeland Miller (1.8 ppg), senior Byron McManus (1.2 ppg) and senior Josh Little (2.5 ppg).
Sowell pointed to two areas in which Central must improve in order to make a playoff run.
“We just need to be consistent on the defensive end and committed to rebounding,” he said.
CENTRAL GIRLS SHOWING IMPROVEMENT
The Central girls basketball team won only four of its first 20 games and was just 3-6 in region games. However, that still has the Eagles in the hunt for a berth in the AA state playoffs.
“I feel the team is performing much better than in previous seasons.,” said Eagles head coach Ariesha Short said. “They are starting to learn each other and where their teammates will be during possessions on the floor.
“I did expect to beat some of the teams we lost too, however I've seen so much growth in these ladies since the first game of the season, even last season.”
Central returns its entire starting lineup. Sophomore Kabreiya Covington led Central in scoring and rebounding with averages of 8.9 and 10.6, respectively.
Junior Jordyn Griffin was averaging 8.4 points and 7.6 rebounds to go with team highs of 2.5 assists and 3.3 steals. Tashia Quick was averaging 6.4 points and 5.4 rebounds to go with 2.2 steals.
Senior Sierra Covington was averaging 5.0 points, and Jariyah Sowell was averaging 4.1 points and 2.0 assists.
Coming off the bench are Ashariya Myers, Dloreya Smith and Rielyn Chambers.
While seeing the improvement in her team, Short knows there is plenty more the Eagles need to improve upon as the postseason nears.
“I want to improve on having less turnovers,” she said. “It is evident that the less turnovers we have, the more points we're able to put on the board.
“I would also like to improve on boxing out and being able to get back on offense and defense. With these improvements, I definitely can see more wins as we near the end of the season.”
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