With only two players on the Trojans’ roster playing just basketball, West Marion is still trying to come together as a team on the hardwood.
That much was evident last Tuesday as the Trojans fell 81-41 on the road to their crosstown rival East Marion.
It was a close game early on as the Eagles led 18-16 at the conclusion of the first quarter, but East Marion outscored the Trojans 45-12 over the second and third quarters.
“East Marion is really good,” West Marion head coach Mark Stringer said. “They had a big advantage over us with all the height (they possess), and we don’t have any. That was one of the major factors. It was close early on, but they have a lot of large people and we don’t.”
East Marion’s defense made its mark throughout the contest with nine steals and six blocks, leading to a number of fast breaks going the other way.
“We played solid defense and it gave us (extra) possessions,” East Marion head coach Calvin Brown said. “The more you have the ball, the more you have an opportunity to score. That’s something I emphasize. Let’s not get fooled by the amount points we score; we score points when we play defense and have the ball enough to accumulate enough points.”
John Rawls led the way for the Eagles with 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Vashon Sims had 13 points and five rebounds. Sharpshooter Ja’Mario Marsalis added 15 points, making three shots from deep, and Flenard McLin had eight points, eight rebounds and three steals and Devin Daniels had eight points, four assists and three steals.
For the Trojans, Cyrus Thompson provided the majority of the offense with 26 points on 11-of-11 shooting from the field and was 3-of-3 from the charity stripe.
“That’s about the way it is. We knew going into the season that Cyrus was our main contributor coming back,” Stringer said. “He’s had several years of experience. With the rest of these guys, they haven’t had the experience at all.”
On top of having an inexperienced team, the lack of time the Trojans have had on the practice court due to football has hindered their progress, according to Stringer.
“The main thing is we had so many players playing football. We’re just getting started good. It’s hard for us with football. Football typically ends right before the season starts or even during and they miss the first couple of games. All but two of our players play football. They go straight from the football field to the basketball court. We’re just trying to get ready for district. We have our first district game (Tuesday), then the rest of them are after Christmas,” he said Monday. “So that’s the main thing, getting ready for district.”
The Trojans were on the road Friday night at Salem and won by more than 30 points, according to Stringer, though the final score and stats were unavailable at press time. Stringer said it was a good game to get everybody some playing time.
“Salem isn’t very good, so it was more of a matter of playing everybody,” he said. “In the first quarter, we were up like 25-1. It was just focusing on playing everybody a lot of minutes.”
On Monday, the Trojans began play in the Enterprise Tournament and topped Loyd Star 56-52. They played their first district game of the season Tuesday night at Seminary, but results were unavailable at press time.
They will play on the road Thursday against Bogue Chitto in the last game of the Enterprise Tournament.
