Denmark-Olar Basketball Team’s End Season In The Class A Playoffs
The Vikings boys and girls team’s ended their season in the class A lower state playoffs.
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Denmark – Basketball season at Denmark-Olar High School is always an exciting time of the year for the Vikings as both boys and girls team’s are perennial class A playoff participants whether they are in the upper state or lower state and the 2025/26 season was no exception as both teams ended their season in the class A lower state playoffs.
The girls team finished the season at 20-6 but they had their earliest exist from the playoffs since the 2020/21 when they fell to Latta 33-32 in the third round. However, a few streaks stayed alive they reached their fifth consecutive 20-win season and they extended their region winning streak to an eye popping 69 straight games. Their last region loss was to Calhoun County 48-46. They only loss one senior so they will look to continue the streaks in 2026/27.
The senior the Vikings are losing is guars Kalen Mayes. She led the team in scoring at 16 points per game. One of the top outside shooters for the Vikings but she always can score going to the basket. In her two years on the varsity, she scored 626 points.
The Vikings will return three of their top four scorers in junior Joy Johnson, freshman Talita Jerido, and eighth grader Zyriah McMillian. Johnson averaged a career-high 13 points per game and was teams top rebounder at 4.3 a night and was also second in steals with 46.
Jerido averaged 9.5 points per game while McMillian led the team in steals with 50. McMillian scored seven points a night as well.
The boys’ team went through some big changes in the 2025/26 season. The defending class A champions lost 95% of their scoring, 9 seniors, class A player of the year, and they brought in a new coach in Marcus Rivera.
The Vikings had a slow start to the season while learning a new system winning only twice in their first 16 games, however, they went 8-2 down the stretch and in region play to finish second in region 4 A.
The only returning players from the state championship team were senior Geontae Staley and junior William Ross. They both played well with Staley averaging 6.3 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game in limited action.
Ross was the team’s leading rebounder at six a game and he chipped in 4.5 points per contest. He also led the team in blocks with 11.
Junior Christian Rivera led the team in scoring at 26.9 points per game, 88 assists and 114 steals. The 5-8 guard was also second on the team in blocks with 10.
