Basketball teams look to finish strong this week
By David Shelton
Senior Writer
Ridgeland - As head coach Thomas Rhodes sees things, if his Thomas Heyward boys basketball team ever finds a way to click on all cylinders, the Rebels might well put on scoring clinic.
The season to date has been of the up and down variety. The Rebels will win a game or two, then drop a game or two. The result has been a 7-9 record overall and a 3-4 record in SCISA region 1-AA.
Entering a February 2nd game with Bible Baptist, Rhodes was hoping that his team was starting to finally come around offensively.
“We have been pretty good on the defensive end all season and that is allowing us to be pretty competitive in most games,” said Rhodes. “Our biggest problem has been scoring. We just can’t seem to get the shots to fall on a consistent basis. Our lack of offensive production is keeping the other teams in the game and sometimes a great defensive effort goes to waste.
“We have worked hard on our shooting and I think we have the potential to be better. It’s just a matter of putting it all together. We can’t seem to get more than one or two guys hot on the same night.”
Rhodes has three seniors in his starting lineup in most games. Working in the post is Joe Laycock, while Will Richardson and Taylor Cowart work at forward/wing. Both Richardson and Cowart have shown flashes of offensive production during the season.
“Will has been playing his best basketball here of late but Taylor is kind of struggling,” said Rhodes. “We need them both to pick it up a bit.”
The starting guards are juniors Ryan Day and J.D. Tuten. They have been the leading scorers in most of the games this season.
“We don’t have one dominant scorer, the one guy that can just go out and score a lot every night,” said Rhodes. “We’ve had several guys lead us in scoring this season. Now we need them all to score on the same night.”
Offense and defense are clicking for the the Thomas Heyward girls basketball team. The Lady Rebels are well on the way to being a true title contender this season.
The Lady Rebels are off to an 18-0 record overall and about to clinch the region championship with a 7-0 mark. Thomas Heyward is ranked number one in the latest SCISA class AA ranks and have been all season.
Thomas Heyward is getting it done on both ends of the floor, especially on the defensive end. They allow only 29 points per game on the season and have held 10 opponents to 30 points or less. Thomas Heyward averages 26 steals per game and handles the boards at a clip of 42.6 caroms per game.
On the offensive end, three players average in double figures with a fourth closing in on the double figure line.
Senior Caitlyn Cooler is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 12 points per game. Cooler also averages 7.7 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 4.1 steals per game.
Junior post Jamie Malphrus is averaging 11.1 points, 7.9 rebounds and four steals per game and junior Brielle Jungblut is averaging 11.1 points and 7.9 steals per game. Jungblut is shooting 54 percent from the field for the season.
Senior Kayla Canavan adds 9.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game and senior Ashlie Layman is averaging 8.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
Other seniors that are wrapping up their varsity careers in a few weeks include Brianna Kelnhoffer, Haley Davis, Jessie Hubbard and Andrea Daring.
Junior Chandler Cook is the lone remaining junior on the team.
THA athletes to be honored at HSSR banquet
Six athletes from the fall sports teams at Thomas Heyward Academy will be honored at the annual High School Sports Report fall sports awards banquet, held on February 19th at the Seawell’s Restaurant in Columbia.
There will be two banquets on that day, the first honoring the all-state teams in volleyball, swimming, cross country, girls tennis and golf. That event will begin at 1:30 p.m.
The second banquet will honor the 2011 all-state football teams, as selected by the publication in December. That event will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Honored as a member of the HSSR SCISA all-state volleyball team from Thomas Heyward is Ashlie Layman, who had 165 kills, 54 blocks and 38 aces.
Five members of the football team will be recognized as SCISA all-state honorees. Junior quarterback J.D. Tuten will be recognized as the SCISA Statewide Player of the Year and junior running back Ryan Day was named the SCISA AA Co-Offensive Player of the Year.
Selected to the AA all-state team were Joe Laycock, Nick Ashcraft and Nick Keiffer.
