Season recap

Before Josey, the Eagles hadn’t been meaningfully challenged since Jan. 13, when they lost 57-48 to Hoover, which won a 7A state title in Alabama’s highest classification. Nonetheless, when the game needed to be decided, Mount Paran was ready.

“We didn’t play as well as we should have, but at the same time we pulled together,” said Eagles coach Stephanie Dunn, winner of six state championships. “You don’t always feel great about every win, sometimes you’re just happy to get it. Maybe it was just one of those games, or maybe it was the pressure of winning a three-peat.”

Dunn added that the Eagles came through, in part, because the team has been playing together under Dunn’s guidance since middle school.

The Eagles are 2A champions, but it’s fair to ask if there’s a classification in Georgia they wouldn’t have won this season. In Class 6A, Marist won state and finished 30-1. Its one loss? To Mount Paran, 38-31, on Dec. 21. Grayson won 7A and finished 32-0, but needed overtime to beat Mount Paran 55-52 on Nov. 18. A rematch with Grayson in a championship game would have been one for the ages.

“We absolutely believe this year we could have played with anyone in the state,” Dunn said.

Senior Ciara Alexander was the lone senior, with the juniors led by Jessica Fields, Jacalyn Myrthil, Kitali Youmans and Isabella Ramirez.

Dunn, a long-time coach whose first title came with St. Pius X in 2004, said Alexander was, “One of the most coachable, hardworking players I’ve ever coached, and I’ve coached a lot of players. She excels in the classroom, she’s a leader, and I attribute a lot of our success to her. On top of all that, she would give you a double-double every night.”

When Dunn reflects on the the season, she’s most proud her team was able to live up to the expectations of a third consecutive state championship.

“The first year they won it with five seniors,” Dunn said. “Last year, it was on them as sophomores, but they did it. They came together, they grew up and they won. This year, it was really about staking their claim as a legitimate top team in the state. Winning three in a row at any level is really hard to do, and for them to have a target on their back and go out there and compete they way they did, with only three losses, and playing against the very best teams in the state, it confirmed that we’re one of the true top teams in the state.

Like Kennesaw, where Mount Paran resides, Augusta is another deep pocket of basketball talent in the Peach State. That’s where Westside competes, with so much talent spread across classifications and even high school governing bodies. Some Augusta schools compete in South Carolina associations.

Patriots coach Jerry Hunter has successfully carved out a championship path for his program, separating it from the rest of the Augusta pack. There’s no secret for how he did it, if you ask.

“It’s our strength and conditioning in the offseason,” Hunter said. “It’s training to understand the lifestyle. We’re not training just to be an excellent basketball player. It’s about commitment, sacrifices, and what it takes to be successful. The work ethic has to be developed. We had the skill, and the trainers do a hell of a job with keeping them in shape, but a work ethic determines a lot, and that’s what I hone in on. Sometimes, it can get frustrating because a lot of it is in the DNA, but what matters is the cake that comes out of the oven.”

The Patriots jumped to a double-digit lead in the championship game and showed no mercy, because they already knew they couldn’t afford to. On Jan. 1, they led South Carolina’s Gray Collegiate 24-6 and lost 62-55.

“The beginning of the state championship game mirrored the beginning of the Gray Collegiate game,” Hunter said. “We’ve been there before, and we knew that, just because we were ahead so many possessions, that doesn’t guarantee the win. It didn’t matter who was on the floor (against Toombs County), we were going hard.”

Hunter credits senior Demarco Middelton for being the glue of this year’s team, and he was the biggest link from the previous two championships won with 2A player of the year Khalon Hudson and Jalexs Ewing. Middleton adapting within his role, which allowed his teammates to grow, is a big reason the Patriots three-peated.

“What made (three-peating) so difficult is that everyone wanted the cape,” Hunter said. “We had four or five guys who wanted to be the next Khalon, the next Jalexs. It’s about the chemistry, and making sure you’re not placing too much responsibility on one player, or the wrong responsibility for a player. At first, Demarco thought he needed to score 20 points a game for us to win. I told him, no, we’ve won with you averaging 12 points and seven assists. Khalon and Jalexs were a lot of those assists, and now you just have to find where those seven assists will come from.”

Bobby Blackwell and Lavonta Ivery were two more key seniors who made a difference this year as the Patriots reshaped their identity.

“We were a box of crayons trying to make sure we had the right colors on the floor at the same time,” Hunter said. “It was an experiment with multiple colors, and the ones you might not think mix well sometimes become special. Once the rainbow is created, it’s the pot of gold on the other end that matters.”

If the growing pains of installing work ethic and a new identity were the ingredients for the cake, last week’s blowout win was, as Hunter said, “the icing.”