As the regular season nears its end, the West Marion Trojans remain in search of their first win.
The Trojans (0-6, 0-4) made the short trek across the county to take on Columbia Jan. 19 and got blown out 70-30 by the Wildcats. It was competitive early with Columbia up 10-6 going into the second quarter before the Wildcats put their foot on the gas.
“Columbia’s pretty good,” West Marion head coach Mark Stringer said. “No. 4 (Darius Stewart) is really a solid player.”
Jaydon Clements, who was West Marion’s leading scorer with 12 points through the first two-and-a-half quarters, fouled out during the third quarter and forced the Trojans to turn to the bench. It was 31-15 at halftime, but the Wildcats pulled away convincingly in the third quarter after Clements went out, outscoring the Trojans 25-8 in the quarter. Qavonte Swanigan was the only other Trojan to score more than three points in the contest as the senior guard finished with seven points.
Stringer said he recently lost three players from his rotation, two because of injuries. Center Kobe Pittman had to have surgery on his foot and will be out for the season. Because of the rash of injuries, the Trojans are down to just five players who were part of the varsity rotation to begin the season, and they had to call up three junior varsity players to fill out the rotation.
At home Friday night, the Trojans had perhaps their best chance to pick up their first victory of the season but couldn’t get it done in a 64-53 loss to Tylertown. Clements once again led the way for the Trojans with 17 points, while Larry Magee added 13 points and Swanigan chipped in nine.
West Marion had cut the deficit to single digits in the third quarter, but then O’Marion Husband fouled out. Losing Husband’s rebounding, help defense and weak-side rim protection hurt the Trojans the rest of the way as they were never able to get the deficit back down to under 10 points.
When the lack of depth for West Marion couples with foul trouble, the Trojans run into trouble.
“That’s been our main issue,” Stringer said. “We play OK as long as my starting five is out there, but then when we have to go to the bench I have to move up JV guys who have never been in that situation. They have to learn the hard way. It doesn’t help that we’re playing teams that are good.”
The Trojans played at Jeff Davis County Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time. Prior to the game, Stringer said he believes his starting five would be able to compete with the Jaguars, but with how JDC plays full-court pressure defense and rotates 10 players regularly West Marion could have a hard time staying with them with its lack of depth.
They were scheduled to play Seminary Friday, but the Bulldogs are in quarantine. As of press time, the Seminary game had not been rescheduled. West Marion’s last scheduled game of the regular season will be next Friday (Feb. 5) at home against Columbia.
