With the Laurence Manning Academy varsity Swampcats headed to the South Carolina Independent School Association 3-A State Championship finals for football, the school’s varsity basketball team hasn’t had much time to practice in the past two weeks.
In fact, only four boys on the basketball team aren’t on the football team.
“We haven’t really been able to practice how we need to,” said Head Coach Will Epps. “But we had a good season last year, so I’m confident we will be able to get right to it.”
The team went 26-8 and won the Region Tournament in the 2016-17 season.
“Our goal every year is to work hard and get better and be the best we can be at the end of the season,” Epps said. “We want to win our conference, our conference tournament and make it to the state playoffs.”
The Swampcats lost six seniors to graduation in 2017.
“That tremendously hurts the team when you lose that many players with experience,” Epps said. “We also had three players who started for us last year who have transferred to other schools.”
The team, therefore, only has three returning players from last year’s winning season. Epps said he will rely on Grayson Dennis, Taylor Lea and Jerrel Kelly for leadership and team cohesiveness.
“Those are the three I know that I can count on,” he said. “They’ve played varsity for me before, and I know they can do the job.”
Epps said the team faces an uphill battle in a tough 3A conference.
“All of the teams are tough,” he said. “You’ve got Porter-Gaud, who has won back-to-back state championship titles. They have the majority of their team back. All the rest are tough, too. There’s not an easy one in the bunch. You have Pinewood Prep, First Baptist, Northwoods, Heathwood Hall, Cardinal Newman, Ben Lippen and Hammond. They’re all great teams. The level of competition in SCISA basketball is unreal.”
Epps said the team strategy is to play “good man-to-man defense.”
“And we try to push the pace of the game,” he said. “We don’t want the other team to be able to relax.”
The team’s first game is a week after the football state championship final, which will be held Saturday at Benedict College.
“It’s going to be a work in progress to start,” Epps said. “Hopefully, by Christmas, we’ll know how we’re going to fare and the team will gel nicely.”
Epps said he didn’t think the kids coming off football would be a hindrance.
“They’re young kids; they’re going to be ready to go,” he said. “The only problem with football is the injuries. You get injured playing football and that crosses over into basketball. But it won’t affect their stamina or game-playing.”
