Kell has won the Region 7 championship without a real star. Sure, the Longhorns have a go-to player. In fact, it’s the number of their go-to players who have the team as the No. 1 seed entering next week’s tournament.
“We play a lot of guys, up to 10, and we don’t really have a go-to kid,” said Kell coach Jermaine Sellers. “You never know where it’s going to come from.”
During this season the Longhorns have had their No. 10 player come into a game and score 17 points. Another time someone from deep on the bench came in to score 25. On still another instance, a different reserve came in to make six 3-pointers in one game.
“It’s been hard for others to prepare for us,” Sellers said.
The Longhorns are led by seniors Justin Perry, who averages 14 points, and C.J. Henderson, who has averaged 14 in the nine games since regaining his eligibility.
Other main contributors include junior Rakim Thompson, one of the team’s best defenders, Najhae Colon, and Aaron Allen, who specializes in drawing offensive fouls.
“We hustle and play team defense,” Sellers said. “We play team defense and when we play team defense we win.”
Eagle’s Landing girls win third straight title
Despite having one of his younger teams, coach Karshaun Peterson’s girls team at Eagle’s Landing won their third straight regular-season region champions. The Region 4 winners will complete the regular season against Stockbridge and in a non-conference game against Newton.
“This group wasn’t hard to motivate,” Peterson said. “We’re just trying to stay focused right now.”
Eagle’s Landing (17-5) is led in scoring by sophomore Jalisa Dunlap and junior Jaleah Storr, who each average 13 points. Mariyah Fletcher averages 9.0 points and 5.7 rebounds and Reyonna Hopkins averages 8.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.
The Golden Eagles have played an ambitious schedule, going to Tampa, Fla., for a tournament and playing difficult non-region games. They won two games at the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational and l week ago they defeated perennial power St. Pius.
“It was about getting the girls to get out of their comfort zone and getting to work a lot of defense,” Peterson said. “We’re looking forward to the (tournament) and seeing how we hold up.”
Veterans girls sew up Region 1 title
No. 3-ranked Veterans has already secured first place in Region 1, but coach Nicki Miranda’s team has a larger goal in mind. “So far we’ve done well, but we haven’t done anything yet,” Miranda said.
The Warhawks (22-2) take a 10-game winning streak into tonight’s showdown game with Harris County (17-5). Even if Veterans loses, it has already clinched first place because of the region’s tiebreaker system.
Veterans is a young team with only one senior starter, point guard Madison Perez, who averages 14.4 points. But the Warhawks have an all-state caliber player in junior Stacie Jones, who averages 14.6 points and 12.7 rebounds and has the ability to take over a game.
The other starters are cat-quick guard Tamia Luckey and sophomores Zykeria Jenkins (7.3 points, 6.5 rebounds) and Ansley Miranda (5.7 points), with Keliyah Johnson providing a physical inside presence off the bench.
“The big question for me was leadership and if everyone was going to work on their game over the summer,” said Miranda, whose team was 18-9 last season. “I felt like if we stayed healthy and had a good summer, we would be in position to make a good run.”
Veterans will host the region tournament next week – the Region 1 girls team hosts this year, the boys champion will host in 2020. The Warhawks won’t play until Friday when they meet the winner of the game between Bainbridge and Thomas County Central.
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