C.J. Smith feels more comfortable.
The West Lowndes High School junior felt that way from the first moment he spoke with new coach Torry Dale. Smith didn’t know what to expect from the conversation, but he admitted his face lit up when Dale told him the Panthers were going back to an up-tempo brand of basketball.
“That is what I am used to. I am used to the West Lowndes ball, not slowing down and running,” Smith said.
Smith, who was appointed the team’s “general,” then was charged with calling his teammates and telling them that the half-court approach the team used in the 2015-16 under coach Danny Crawford was no more. In its place, the Panthers were going to run at every opportunity.
The style of play combined with a schedule filled with games against larger classification schools like Starkville, Columbus, and New Hope, among others, has West Lowndes (18-13) in prime position to realize its goals. At noon Wednesday, West Lowndes will take on Ashland in the quarterfinals of the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 1A State tournament. The winner will advance to the semifinals at Mississippi Coliseum.
Last season, DeAnthony Tipler scored 23 points to lead Ashland to a 60-49 victory against West Lowndes in the Class 1A State title game.
That game has served as motivation for Smith and his teammates, even if West Lowndes lost all five starters from last season’s squad due to various reasons. Dale, who coached boys basketball at H.W. Byers and Charleston prior to taking Crawford’s place, said this season’s team has excelled because the “role” players have accepted their places on the team and have embraced the style of play. It is a style similar to the one Dale played when he was part of a state championship team at Durant High.
“We feel like we haven’t gotten any respect,” Smith said. “We have stayed humble and stayed together as a team and continue to grind. We felt we could get the job done without the four or five players we lost.”
Smith said he has had to take on a bigger leadership role due to the turnover on the roster. He said seniors like Devon Chandler and Courtney Stovall have raised their levels of play to help the Panthers gain respect. A 51-50 victory against Leake County helped West Lowndes win the Class 1A, District 6 title. Wins against Lumberton (85-50) and Mount Olive (76-51) have pushed the team three wins away from winning a state title.
Chandler, who has earned the nickname “sniper” from Dale, was Smith’s first call. He said he, too, liked what he heard about the Panthers’ new style of play. Chandler said Dale gives the players the freedom to make decisions and to use their athleticism to make things happen. Most times, the plays come at a fast and furious pace.
“(CJ) called me and told me he was going to release us,” Chandler said. “I told him I couldn’t wait to get into the gym.”
Chandler said Dale was true to his word from the first day of practice. He admits, though, that the players have had to do a lot more running, and still do, to make sure they’re ready for 32 minutes of up-and-down basketball.
“I trust it and I believe in it,” Chandler said. “I wasn’t used to the running, but we had to get into shape. We do a lot of everything. Mainly we do a lot of sprints and run the bleachers. We are a pretty medium-sized team, so we have to be quick and run up and down and get a lot of shots up.”
The result is a group Smith and Chandler feel is in better shape and is better conditioned. Last season, West Lowndes relied more on the size of JaQuante Bell, who transferred to New Hope, TyShun Spencer, who graduated, and played more half-court basketball. Now, though, Chandler said the Panthers are ready to take care of unfinished business. The first step is getting revenge against Ashland.
“We are just excited,” Chandler said. “We have to stay humble, but we are hungry to play them.”
Dale, who won a boys basketballk state title at Durant High as a senior in 2005, has confidence the Panthers can realize that goal. He said it would be a fitting accomplishment for an undersized team to win a championship for the people of Crawford and Artesia, as well as all of the graduates of Motley High, which became West Lowndes High.
“With a guard like CJ, I knew there was no way I was walking the ball up (the court),” said Dale, who recalls watching West Lowndes play Ashland last season. “I am looking to create opportunities when I can. I understand why they went with that game plan based on the size they had, but I am a guard myself, so obviously I am going to have that guard mentality.”
Dale said he was stunned to hear the news that Crawford has resigned from his position at West Lowndes (he wound up as the boys basketball coach at Noxubee County High) and immediately contacted Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Lynn Wright to find out what he had to do to apply for the position. He said he has enjoyed every day at the school after working last season as a football school. Now, though, Dale knows he is at a school where basketball is special and the players and fans expect to be regulars in Jackson. He hopes the Panthers can put all of the pieces together three more times and push the tempo and use old-school West Lowndes basketball to win an elusive state championship.
“I have been blessed the Lord allowed me to inherit such a mature team basketball wise,” Dale said. “You take a kid like Devon Chandler. You don’t get 100 steals in a season unless someone buys into your defensive plan. Every one of the players has contributed. We might have three guys who saw action in the Coliseum last year. For us to come back and win district and play the schedule we played against, we are battle tested and we didn’t run from competition.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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