Thursday, March 10, 2011

Hats off to Hillcrest High School's boys basketball team

Congratulations to Hillcrest High School’s varsity boys basketball team this week for representing Conecuh County in the Class 4A state tournament.

Even though the Jags, who have been ranked among the best teams in their class all season, came up short against Anniston in the semifinals Wednesday of last week in Birmingham, they still deserve a pat on the back for posting the best season the school’s basketball program has had in several years.

Hillcrest Head Coach Warren Roberts Jr. did an outstanding job coaching and managing his team this season, and it’ll be interesting to see how well they do next season after the loss of five remarkable seniors.

Seniors on the team include state all-tourney player DeAundre Lyons, Chris Joyner, Chris Howard, Randell Taylor and Travis Stallworth.

Other players on the team include juniors Barron Smith, Barry Smith, Cleveland Thomas, Keith Richardson, Terrance Simpson, Laquiention Prince and Tevin Rudolph. Sophomores include Demetrius Likely and Rajah Savage.

If you see any of these players or Coach Roberts out on the street, give them a big pat on the back and let them know how much you appreciate their efforts this season.

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Evergreen’s Chris Hines played his final regular season home game at Alabama on Saturday, helping to lead the Tide to a 65-57 win over Georgia. Alabama didn’t lose a home game all season, and Hines played a big part in making that happen.

Hines is one of four seniors on this year’s team, and it’ll be interesting to watch how he fairs at the next level. I’d love to see Hines make a pro roster. This year’s NBA draft will be held on June 23 in Newark, N.J. Of course, if he’s not drafted, he could make a team as a free agent or find himself on one of the league’s development teams.

With that said, I’m probably getting the cart ahead of the horse because I’m really looking forward to seeing how Alabama does in the SEC tournament. Hopefully, they’ll finish strong and be among the teams selected to this year’s NCAA tourney.

If they don’t make the NCAA tourney, then they’re surely a shoo-in for the NIT tourney, which will mean more television exposure for Hines and the other seniors on the team.

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High school baseball and softball is in full swing now in Conecuh County and with the time changing this weekend, we’ll have plenty of long afternoons ahead to enjoy the upcoming games. I think that our local teams will be improved over last year’s teams, and it’ll be fun to see how they match up against their area opponents.

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I saw in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! earlier this week that the University of Mount Union football team in Alliance, Ohio won its 100th consecutive regular season away game on Nov. 6, 2010 by beating the team from Baldwin-Wallace College – the last home team to beat them back in 1991.

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