Lake City – Seneca Barron’s first season as the boys basketball head coach at his alma mater, Lake City High School, hasn’t gone like he would have hoped.
It started out OK with the Panthers winning six of their first 14 games. However, it was a struggle for them when play in Region 6-AAA began, starting 0-7.
“This is one of the toughest regions in the state,” Barron said. “I'll put it up against anybody. We've got some good pedigree basketball schools in this region.
“We call it a little baby ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference).”
LCHS had no starters returning from last year’s 19-7 squad, but did have three back who were part of the rotation. They are seniors Bryson Rose and Dallas Davis and junior Blayne Edwards.
Rose was leading the team in scoring at 15.6 points per game to go with 3.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.9 steals. Davis led the team in steals at 3.5 and assists at 3.5 while averaging 10.4 points. Edwards was leading in rebounds at 8.3 to go with 11.5 points.
The other starters are sophomore Amari Hanna and senior Jayden Graham. Hanna was averaging 6.1 points, while Graham led in blocked shots at 2.1 to go with 7.5 rebounds and 3.2 points.
Seniors Antonio Dickson, Etavian Davis, Erique Wilson and Christopher Burgess and sophomores Shayen Shavers, Reginald Matthews and Jeffery Burgess had all played in at least 17 games as Barron has searched for a good rotation of players.
“We've got to compete better, work harder,” Barron said. “We’re still on this roller coaster, trying to find depth off the bench. We need to have some of these guys stepping up.”
GIRLS TRYING TO OVERCOME GROWING PAINS
The Lake City girls basketball team got off to an 8-14 overall start and was just 1-6 in region play. However, head coach Deborah Muldrow isn’t necessarily upset with her team’s play.
“They are above what I expected because you've got a young team,” Muldrow said. “They're doing fine, I just have to help them improve their game, and learn “the” game. They don't know “the” game yet.”
The Panthers’ 8-player rotation has one senior, two juniors, four sophomores and one seventh-grader. That seventh-grader is LCHS’ starting point guard and leading scorer in Hannah Riles.
Riles was averaging 11.7 points and 2.4 assists. Junior Jayda Burgess was just being Riles in scoring with an 11.6 while averaging a team high 7.7 rebounds.
Riles and Burgess are both starters. The other three starting roles have been juggled.
The sophomores are Nazira Starks (7.2 ppg, 5.2 rpg), Jada Robinson (6.2 ppg), Trayana Burgess (4.9 ppg, 2.6 apg) and Amani Singletary (1.2 ppg, 2.3 steals).
Senior Destiny McFadden (3.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg) and junior Cimyiah Burgess (2.7 ppg) are in the rotation as well.
“It's just them coming together and playing and playing and playing,” Muldrow said. “And then it's the mentality. They do young mistakes, so we've just got to keep working. I'm proud of them because we are competing a little bit. As we go, we'll get better.”
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