Jherquaveus Sanders got it right.
Watching fellow West Lowndes senior Albert Plair fail to finish a dunk late in the third quarter of Tuesday’s home game against Ethel, Sanders took his time when the opportunity came his way.
Early in the fourth quarter, Sanders found himself with the ball and without a defender in front of him. He approached the rim straight on with a little less speed than his teammate, leapt and threw down a powerful two-handed slam, firing up the Panthers fans in attendance.
“I think the crowd was kind of waiting on it,” West Lowndes coach Donta Yates said. “We missed a couple earlier. The crowd feeds off that, and as long as they put it in the basket, it’s fine with me.”
Sanders’ dunk did more than just fire up the crowd: It was the start of a furious 18-0 West Lowndes run that stretched the Panthers’ lead from eight to 26 points in the span of just a couple of minutes. West Lowndes (9-8) carried that momentum to a 70-44 win over Ethel on Tuesday.
“Whenever you can score back to back and not give up any points, that’s huge,” Yates said of the spurt. “That’s always fun. I hope we can do that more often.”
The Panthers have certainly found more of that type of success since the start of the district section of their schedule. West Lowndes is 8-1 in district games, rebounding from a 1-6 start to the season. The team’s only district loss came Jan. 17 at Ethel — a shorthanded West Lowndes squad lost 66-52.
But from the start Tuesday, West Lowndes flipped the script. The Panthers jumped out to a 9-2 lead early in the first quarter, picking up a 19-8 advantage by the end of the period. Sanders and freshman Darrell Brooks combined for 14 points in the first quarter alone and 23 in the first half, giving West Lowndes a 37-19 halftime lead and showing Tuesday wasn’t going to follow the same pattern.
“This time, the team came together,” Sanders said. “Everybody locked in. We got the win. We did what we needed to do.”
Ethel fought back, though, closing the gap to single digits early in the fourth quarter thanks to strong 3-point shooting and stellar play from Sacarrio Merritt and Izik Stewart. Merritt scored 17 points, and Stewart had 10.
But Sanders’ dunk brought the lead back to 10 points and jump-started a run in which Brooks and sophomore Decamby Willis each played big roles. The Panthers ran up and down the floor seemingly at will, never settling down to run offensive sets when they could cash in at the rim or draw fouls.
“We’re a transition team,” Yates said. “When you can run and get layups and easy baskets, that’s what we’re looking to do.”
Sanders, who followed his dunk with four more points on a pair of free throws and a layup during the Panthers’ big run, finished with 20 on the night. After he helped lead the team to the MHSAA Class 1A semifinals last season, where the Panthers lost to Okolona, Sanders will need even more performances like Tuesday’s as the games go by.
Friday is West Lowndes’ final regular-season game, a home contest against Noxapater; the district tournament starts next week. As the season wraps up, Yates knows what he’s got in the senior.
“Qua’s one of our senior leaders,” Yates said of Sanders. “He understands my expectation of him and that the team is looking for him to lead.”
On Tuesday, Sanders certainly delivered.
West Lowndes girls 49, Ethel 14
The West Lowndes girls knew what they needed to work on after being eliminated by Ethel 57-56 in the first round of last year’s Class 1A playoffs: defense.
Over the summer, junior guard Averi Sanders said, the Panthers worked on their footwork day after day, trying to get their defensive skill where it needed to be.
“We know if we want to further our season this year, we’ve got to play some strong defense,” West Lowndes coach Takeea Bozeman said.
Tuesday was more proof that all that practice has paid off.
West Lowndes (19-0) locked in, delivered one of its best defensive performances of the year and served a bit of revenge to the school that knocked the Panthers out of the playoffs with a dominant 49-14 win Tuesday.
“It just brought up our spirit to keep going and play hard throughout the whole thing,” Sanders said of that memorable loss.
Sanders, back for a few weeks now after a high ankle sprain, made an early impact to get a somewhat lethargic West Lowndes offense into gear. The Panthers couldn’t connect on shot after shot in the first few minutes, but Sanders was the exception. She hit a pair of free throws and later stole the ball and laid it in to give West Lowndes a 4-2 lead — but she still acknowledged her team’s early offensive struggles early on.
“We’ve gotta work on that and get better with that, because we’re gonna play harder teams down the line,” Sanders said.
But for the other 28 minutes or so, West Lowndes played its style nearly flawless basketball: forcing turnovers, contesting shots inside and running out to find open shooters outside or cutters at the rim.
Sanders finished with eight points, while senior Marvaysha Seals and junior Tydajasha Hood played big scoring roles as they typically do for the Panthers. Seals had 12 points, and Hood matched Sanders with eight.
West Lowndes is one win away from an undefeated regular season, which it could close out Friday at home against Noxapater in what Bozeman knows will be an emotional senior night for her team.
“It’s gonna feel great,” Bozeman said. “It’s gonna feel a little sad because they won’t be here with me anymore next year, so it’ll be a lot of mixed emotions.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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