Ty
Kings Mountain girls hope
to move up in SWC standings
Kings Mountain High basketball coach Larry Sipe is pictured with three of his returning starters. Left
to right are Justin Jones, Marquiz Williamson and Kyle Sellers.
Sipe. Mountaineers eye
return to state playofis
In his first eight years as boys
basketball coach: at Kings
Mountain High School, Larry
Sipe's charges: qualified for the
state 3-A playoffs every season.
Last year, the Mountaineers
missed by one game.
The veteran coach says he's felt
bad about that for almost a year
and he's anticipating seeing his
Mountaineers back in post-season
play this year.
Sipe has been working a veteran
ball club since November 1. The
Mountaineers open their regular
season on December 1 at home
against Hunter Huss.
Sipe, who has a 144-84 record in
nine years at Kings Mountain, has
all five of his starters back from
last year. While most people regard
Shelby and Burns as the teams to
beat in the Southwestern 3-A
Conference this winter, the
Mountaineers are hoping to have a
big say in who wins the race.
"Experience is going to be a big
plus for us," said Sipe. "Last year
we started one freshman, two
sophomores and two juniors.
Everybody's a year older so we
hope our experience will pay off,
especially in the close games."
Sipe pointed out that the
Mountaineers lost five games by
three points or less last year. With
experience on their side this year,
the Mountaineers should win‘many.
of the close ones.
Heading the list of returning
players is senior point guard
Marquiz Williamson. The two-time
All-SWC standout averaged 17.3
point per game last year and also
had 103 steals. He has scored 884
points in his high school career and
should top the 1,000-point mark
early in the season. ;
Justin Jones, a 5-11 senior, and
Bryan Leftwich, a sophomore who
set a school record with 53 three-
point goals last year, return at the
wings. Although Jones is smal, he
has a 36-inch vertical jump and is
being counted on to shoulder much
of the rebounding load.
"Justin is a good outside shooter
and he takes the ball to the basket,"
Sipe said. "He's one of these kids
that have to get in there and re-
bound. He makes up for his lack of
size with jumping ability. We'll
count on him for leadership and re-
bounds.
“The fact that Leftwich scored
53 threes last year is indicative that
we were primarily a perimeter
team,” Sipe added. "We started two
sophomores on the inside and we
kind of relied on that outside shot
last year. If our inside people are
stronger this year, Bryan's total
may go down a bit. We'll have to
wait and see how it goes. The one
thing I've noticed about his game
already is that he is still a very
good outside shooter, but he can al-
so put the ball on the floor and go
to the basket. He's picked his game
up there."
Sipe is working with three play-
ers at the post positions, and all
will see a lot of playing time.
Juniors Sharee Hopper and Calvin
~ Mathis and senior Kyle Sellers are
all 6-2.
"Calvin transferred in here last
year from Texas and played about
half the season with us," Sipz re-
called. "He has only been with us a
week because he played football.
With those three ys we're hoping
we're going tc have a good inside
game first, and then push it bac
out to the perin==¥er.” :
Jerry Black 2.50 recently joined -
the team from football and will be
a good back-up to Williamson at
point guard. :
Marcus Bell, still another grid-
* der, is up from the JV team and
will contribute inside. Albert
Perkins, a sophomore, looks good
at the wing and senior Lewis
Nantz, who is back on the basket-
ball court after competing on the
oN
swimming team last year, will be
backing up Jones.
Andres Alvarez, an exchange
student from Colombia, South
America, hopes to improve as he
becomes more accustomed to play-
ing North American basketball.
"He'll be the first to tell you that
the brand of high school basketball
here is entirely different from what
he's been accustomed to," said
Sipe. "But he's a hard worker. I
think it's going to be a good experi-
ence for him and, in turn, I hope
it's going to be a good experience
for our players to be around him."
Chad Huntsinger, a senior who
hasn't played basketball before,
hopes to get in some playing time
at guard, and transfer William
Vaughn, a 6-1 sophomore whose
brother Era played on Sipe's 1989-
90 championship team, should be-
come an asset inside as he becomes
stronger.
"Rebounding will be the key for
us,” says Sipe. "Last year we were
able to put points on the board but
there were only five games in
which we out-rebounded the oppo-
sition. "Experience will also be a
big factor. With everybody coming
back, especially our perimeter peo-
ple who are three of the best in the
conference, if we can break even
on the boards we'll be in good
shape."
Sipe always considers depth a
key, because he tries to use as
many players as possible in every
game. And, he looks for substitutes
to have a team before self attitude.
"We have some quality people
who can come in and play well
when we have to take a rest or get
in foul trouble,” he said. "You have
to make sure your substitutes un-
derstand the role they're going to
have to play. You can talk to them
for two hours a day about good at-
titudes and roles, but it comes
dow. 10 whether they're going to
accept that role or not. They proba-
bly get tired of hearing me talk
about this. But if you look back at
the two teams we've had that won
sectional championships and the
team that went all the way to the
state finals in 1990, you can see
that it takes five people to start a
game but it takes more than five to
be successful. I constantly remind
them about people in the past who
didn't have to start to feel like they
were contributing to the team. If I
had to go to the bench, they were
ready. They hopped up, went to the
scorer's table and went in and
played hard. They were really good
team basketball players. It's a key
for every team - getting everybody
Thanksgiving Day
11 am - 3 pm
25
per person
to play and make a contribution,
and be willing to accept that."
The Mountaineers will scrim-
mage East Gaston here on Tuesday,
Nov. 24 at 5 p.m. On November
30, they go to Independence for a
scrimmage.
THE SCHEDULE
Dec. 1 - Hunter Huss; Dec. 3 - at
Clover; Dec. 8 - at Huss; Dec, 11 -
at Lincolnton; Dec. 15 - Clover;
Dec. 18 - at East Lincoln; Dec. 28-
30 - Shelby Star Tournament at
Gardner-Webb (KM vs. Olympic in
first round); Jan. 5 - Lincolnton;
Jan. 6 - East Lincoln; Jan. 8 - East
Rutherford; Jan. 15 - North
Gaston; Jan. 19 - at R-S Central;
Jan. 22 - at Burns; Jan. 29 -
Shelby; Feb. 2 - at South Point;
Feb. 5 - at East Rutherford; Feb. 9
- at North Gaston; Feb. 12 - R-S
Central; Feb. 16 - Burns; Feb. 23 -
at Shelby; Feb. 26 - South Point.
Kings Mountain High's girls
basketball tcam hopes to capture
one of the four state playoff spots
from the Southwestern 3-A
Conference this year.
The Lady Mountaineers have
shown steady improvement in two
years under Coach Tony Leigh.
With the SWC more balanced this
year, Leigh feels his girls have a le-
gitimate shot at the playoffs.
“I don't think the conference is
going to be as overpowering as it
was last year," he said. "I still look
for East Rutherford to be strong,
and Burns will be stronger. After
that, it's going to be pretty much of
a logjam. Our goal is to try to make
one of those four playoff spots."
Leigh has been practicing his
team since November 1, and the
Lady Mountaineers hosted East
KM girls to host
scrimmage Friday
Kings Mountain High's varsity
girls basketball team will sponsor a
multiple scrimmage Friday at 4:30
p.m. at the KMHS gym.
Teams from Kings Mountain,
Cherryville, West Lincoln,
Ashbrook and Hunter Huss will
compete. Admission is $2 and a
concession stand will be in opera-
tion.
Each team will scrimmage three
schools. Each game will consist of
two 12-minute quarters and the
clock will run continuously.
Cherryville and Hunter Huss
will play at 4:30, followed by
Kings Mountain and Ashbrook at 5
p.m. West Lincoln takes on Huss at
5:30 and Kings Mountain battles
Cherryville at 6 p.m. At 6:30, West
Lincoln meets Ashbrook, and at 7
p.m., Kings Mountain battles Huss.
At 7:30, Ashbrook faces
Cherryville, and at 8 p.m., Kings
Mountain plays West Lincoln.
Gaston in a scrimmage Monday af-
ternoon. Kings Mountain will host
a multiple scrimmage Friday after-
noon. The regular season opens
5
here on December 1 against Hunter
Huss. - !
See Basketball, 8-A
Kings Mountain High girls basketball coach Tony Leigh discusses
strategy with his players during a scrimmage with East Gaston
Monday. Leigh hopes his girls will qualify for the state playoffs this
season.
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