MLK Day basketball at the Greensboro Coliseum

There was a lot of basketball going on at the Greensboro Coliseum on Monday and it was almost as cold in the Coliseum as it was when I was outside at the Forrest Valley Court on Sunday afternoon. I spent about an hour out there shooting Sunday and it always helps to take a few shots to get in the mood for a full day of hoops at the Coliseum.

The thing that impressed me the most on Monday was the Plumlee brothers from Christ School out of Arden, up near Asheville. There are three Plumlee brothers on the Greenies team, Miles at 6’10 a senior, Mason at 6’11 a junior, and Marshall at 6’8 a freshman. I have seen Miles and Mason play against Greensboro Day School in previous years at the Bengals’ Lawndale Drive campus but these boys are really “starting to get it”, as Gene Hackman would say in Hoosiers. The Plumlee brothers, especially Miles(headed to Stanford) and Mason are for real and they have a chance to lead Christ School to another State Championship. Christ School gave Oak Hill fits before losing to the Brandon Jennings led Warriors 71-68. Brandon Jennings looked good and he is headed to Arizona, but the Plumee brothers stole the show with their inside play for Christ School. Nelson Kepley of the News and Record has some nice photos on the front page of today’s sports and we should have some video up on the web site of all the games later today. Jeff Carlton and Brian Joura were also covering the games for the N&R.

If the Plumee brothers got my attention did anyone else? I know my basketball pretty well and I must be living it this time of year to be out shooting hoops in 20 degree temperatures, and I think we have another kid to watch. You’ve got to watch out for this kid. He is on Rusty LaRue’s Forsyth Country Day Fury team and his name is Tyler Lewis and he is only in the 8th grade. In the 8th grade? Yes the 8th grade, but he had 16 points to lead all the Furies in scoring as LaRue’s boys defeated Calvary Baptist 64-53. I have this feeling that Lewis will be a big-time player one of these days if he isn’t already. Mike Brey of Notre Dame, Tommy Amaker of Harvard, Bobby Cremins of the College of Charleston, and Chris Collins of Duke were looking on and they were taking notes. We will all get a chance to see Tyler Lewis in person when his team comes over to play Freddy Johnson’s Greensboro Day School Bengals on February 8. Lewis looks like a 7th or 8th grade version of Donald Moore Jr.(formerly of Page and UNCG)

The Calvary Baptist Cougars fell to (19-4) after the loss and CBC had beaten FCD earlier in the year 57-52 and CBC also knocked off High Point Central and High Point Christian. Carter Cook led CBC with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals.(Cook is the wild red-head being recruited by several large universities including West Virginia). Jack Rooney had 11 for CBC, Torez Young 9, Ben Shoesmith 7, plus Robbie Dilmore and Justin Stafford had 6 each and the 6’10 bearded Stafford added 10 rebounds. FCD saw Nick Sink with 15, Stewart Cooper with 11 and Lazare Amossou-Tossou with 10.

Game one on MLK Day at the Coliseum had the Glenn Bobcats, coached by former Northwest Guilford Viking Lee Reavis, facing Seth Curry and Charlotte Christian. Willis Hall led CC with 22 and Curry collected 17 but the Glenn Bobcats got the win 57-54. Glenn(9-6) was paced by Kendall Smith who had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Coach Reavis told me that former Glenn coach and Guilford College baseball and basketball star Robert Fulton is doing well, working in construction over in Winston-Salem. Fulton coached boys basketball and girls softball at Glenn and was the head baseball coach at Guilford. Fulton had to serve prison time for his involvement with a female student at Glenn. It is good to hear that Coach Fulton is working hard and rebuilding his future.

Another player that caught my eye was 6’8 Karron Johnson of Mount Zion Academy. Johnson scored 19 points and proved he can run the court in the 77-64 win by MZA over Northern Guilford. Northern Guilford put up a good fight in the first half going toe-to-toe with Johnson and company in the first quarter(16-16). The score became 34-26 Mount Zion at the half and then MZA exploded in the third quarter and went on an 11-2 run to open things up, then NG played hard the rest of the way but it wasn’t enough to stop Johnson and MZA. The trio of Michael Neal, Jonathan Frye, and Jacob Lawson played well for NG with Neal netting 21, Frye 15, and Lawson had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Northern now stands at (11-6) and hopes to have a home game at their new gymnasium this week. Don’t forget that name Karron Johnson and while your’e at it keep Frye, Lawson, Neal, and Lamot on your list too.

In the only game of the day involving two of our county teams,(one public and one private), Greensboro Day School topped Page 51-47. Greensboro Day’s record moves to (20-2) and Page falls to (8-9). The Bengals out-scored the Pirates 17-12 in the 4th quarter to win the MLK Day contest. It was a similar thread for Page up by two points at the half 22-20, and then the Pirates led 35-34 after three quarters, before falling in the 4th frame to the Bengals. Page didn’t have the big leads that they have experienced in some games but they had the lead and lost it again.

You have to feel for Pirate coach Robert Kent, who Jack Brewer says is the best yeller in the county. You also have to feel good for coach Freddy Johnson, who has another outstanding Bengal ballclub. Javan Mitchell paced the balanced Begal attack with 12 while Deonte Maddox was the top man for Page with 14 points. This was the first game back for Maddox after missing nearly two weeks. Add Javan Mitchell to that list of names to watch. Mitchell won his big-man battle Monday with Page’s Julius Brooks adding 8 boards and 3 blocks to his scoring total. I have to believe that Brey, Amaker, Cremins, and Collins were keeping and eye or two on Mitchell.

2 thoughts on “MLK Day basketball at the Greensboro Coliseum

  1. Commentary in the story on the Plumlees and Jennings and we have video on the all the games coming up on the web site later today.

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