For the majority of the season, East Marion (10-3) has cruised through its schedule to this point and used its latest game to test some things out.
Last Friday night, the Eagles traveled to Wiggins to take on the Stone Tomcats (14-3) and got a humbling experience in the process of an 80-45 loss, though it was more of a testing-the-water game for East Marion, according to head coach Calvin Brown.
“They were able to consistently score for four quarters. We went into that game basically planning to have a little fun and get our last look at every single player on the roster in a competitive situation,” he said. “(Stone) had kids scoring every single quarter, and we had a few droughts, a few spells where we didn’t take care of the ball, but the score really didn’t indicate the matchup. Just on that particular night, they were getting baskets consistently for four quarters and up to that point, we had been outscoring and outrunning (teams). We just got a little taste of our own medicine.”
East Marion got out to a good start, leading Stone 19-17 heading into the second quarter, but the Tomcats ran away with the game over the final 24 minutes.
Stone shot a superb 52 percent from the field, while the Eagles struggled to find the nylon, shooting at a 32 percent clip. Ja’Mario Marsalis led the Eagles with 12 points, followed by John Rawls with 10 points and Caleb Rawls with seven.
As a team, the Eagles attempted a season-high 20 three-pointers, a vast difference in style as they typically like to get to the rim in transition and play inside-out in the half court. However, the Eagles coaching staff was OK with the inordinate amount of jumpers as it wanted to see how they fared in that type of game.
“It was the overall tone. It had the feel of an AAU game or a summer league game, and we kind of went with it as a coaching staff basically to see how potent we were offensively. Could we outscore a good team?” Brown said. “I think it’s going to be very beneficial for us going forward when we have to recommit to our core principles, shorten our bench a little bit and be more specific in defining each player’s role. That will be very valuable to us going into the Lumberton game (played Tuesday after press time). There’s a lot of things you have to show kids rather than tell them.”
Throughout the team’s first 13 games, Brown’s rotation has typically been between nine and 11 players but the beginning of district play will change that. He said the Eagles have figured out their ideal rotation and how they want to play going forward.
“In our minds, as a staff, we do. Basketball, as in life, they have so much in common. It doesn’t always play out the way you visualize it, but we feel like we do (have a good sense of our rotation and identity),” he said.
The Eagles hosted Lumberton in their district opener Tuesday night, but results weren’t available at press time. They will continue their district slate Friday night in Pascagoula when they take on Resurrection Catholic at 7 p.m.
Last season, East Marion went undefeated in Class 2A Region 8 and while it is now participating in Class 1A Region 8, Brown believes the Eagles can do the same this year.
“That’s the goal. We feel like it’s very realistic, and that’s no disrespect to Lumberton, Sacred Heart or Resurrection (Catholic),” he said. “Salem is uncommonly down from what they’ve had in the past in certain years. In no disrespect to those other teams, we feel like we can win them all.”
Pictured Above: East Marion’s Devin Daniels, left, tries to get around Columbia High’s Javen Moses in the open floor. | File Photo
