Military Magnet Girl’s Return To The Class A Finals With Big Win Over Denmark-Olar
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Florence—Military Magnet (25-5) played up to their talent level, led by junior Danariyah “D” William’s 14 points, 17 rebounds, and five steals for a 56-36 win over Denmark-Olar at the Florence Civic Center on Thursday, to win the Class A girls’ basketball lower state championship.
Military Magnet will now compete for a Class A state title at 2 p.m. on March, 6 at the Florence Civic Center against upper state champion Lee Central, who beat North, 67-28.
After the game Military Magnet veteran head coach Nathaniel Taylor told the HSSR, “Our team is a determined bunch right now,” he said. “We hang our hats on defense and that is what we do best. We get maximum effort off of our defense.
“We have confidence we can beat anyone we play but you always worry about having a bad game and the team beating themselves,” said Coach Taylor. “We missed out on making the finals last year so we came into the season focused on getting to the finals. We have now made the finals five out of the past six seasons.
“We have a good tradition because the young ladies in our community have bought into what we are trying to accomplish and they spend a lot of time in our open gym year-round,” said Coach Taylor. “There are not a lot of things for them to do in the community so they focus most of their time on improving their basketball skills.
Senior Military Magnet captain Dream Watson added 9 points and three steals in the win. “She is a strong candidate for the Class A Player of the Year,” said Coach Taylor. “She has been in our program for a long time and she is a great senior leader.”
Watson has ben on the varsity for seven seasons. “It feels great to help my team get to the state finals in my senior year,” she said from the court. “We take a lot of pride in our defense. We just have to keep playing well for one more game.”
Seventh grader Mariah Brown has a bright future for MM and she added 9 points in the big win. Senior Jada Davis scored 8 points with four assists and teammates Sabri Mitchell and freshman Lauren Willis contributed five points and freshman Destinee Wilson had four points.
Denmark-Olar, who lost to Lake View in the finals a year ago, was realigned to the lower state this season. The Lady Vikings were led in the game by veteran senior Aveion Walker who had 14 points in the game. Walker finished the season scoring 11.1 points with 9.1 rebounds a game.
Senior PG
Ry’Naisha
Barnes added 10 points for the Vikings while 8th grader
Azuria
Wright had five points.
On the season the Vikings top scorer was junior Kalen Mayes who averaged 13.9 points and 3.9 steals a game. Sophomore Joy Johnson will also return for the Vikings next season after averaging 8.1-point sand four rebounds a game this season.
Military Magnet led the game 29-17 at the half on balanced scoring from Brown and Williams who had seven points each at the break.
MM went into the final period leading 44-32. Davis hit a three-point shot from the top of the key to put MM up 32-20 with 6:52 le3ft in the third period and then three steals in the quarter led to six transition points. Denmark-Olar hit back-to-back three-point shots from Mayes and Barnes in the third period but it was not enough to overcome the deficit.
Denmark-Olar coach Terence Jones told the HSSR after the game, “I am very proud of this team and what they have accomplished not only this season, but over the past four or five seasons,” he said. “We will miss the leadership of Aveion but we have a strong group of younger players returning.”
