Ten best: Wossman wins huge game against Carroll
If there’s a better rivalry in Louisiana basketball than Carroll-Wossman, I want to see it, especially given both teams are true Top 28 contenders in 3A. Wossman won this one 58-37, sending a pretty big message to the rest of…
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Continue ReadingIf there’s a better rivalry in Louisiana basketball than Carroll-Wossman, I want to see it, especially given both teams are true Top 28 contenders in 3A. Wossman won this one 58-37, sending a pretty big message to the rest of 3A that they aren’t afraid of anyone.
MVP – Wossman point guard CJ Jones. It’s no anomaly that Wossman got going as CJ got going – both with his own buckets and assisting others. He finished with 20 points and had a statsheet stuffer kind of game – yet another instance of the Northwestern State signee proving his value.
Play of the Game – Wossman’s bucket at the end of the third quarter. Point guard CJ Jones bring the ball across halfcourt with something like 45 seconds left and kills the clock for the final shot. In that 30 seconds of nothing, Wossman coach Casey Jones get his pair of forwards to camp out right along the baseline, just behind the frontcourt line of Carroll’s 2-3 zone. With 10 seconds left, CJ Jones and another Wossman guard passed between each other a time or two, the clock ticking down into the final seconds and the Carroll back line instinctively creeping up.
CJ Jones saw the new gap that step forward created and fired a bullet of a pass to Cliff Gray. He made an easy layup and Jones – who normally displays the emotional spectrum of a cinder block in games – cracked a smile on his way back to the bench. I bet a small part of him knew the game was effectively over at that point.
Best Rebounder – Carroll forward Larry Owens. I didn’t see any official number after the game, but it had to be close to 15, especially given the way he rebounded in the second half. As weird as this is, I would argue he was just as effective on the offensive glass as he was on the defensive side. (Not that those translated to many points, which we’ll get to in the next point.)
Best Defensive Performance – Wossman’s forwards. Around here, Larry Owens tends to dominate in just about every game he plays. I mean, look at him – he’s a 6-foot-8 Northwestern State signee going up against kids, most of the time, who are not taller than 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6. That didn’t stop Wossman’s forwards – the blend of Nick Qualls, Darrell Comanche and Jalen Harris, among others – from keeping him in check for most of the game, playing a big role in Carroll’s offense never getting off the ground for 37 total points.
Wossman’s basic strategy was to have one man sealing him off from the front whenever possible and have another streak in from behind as soon as any pass over the top was attempted, and it worked beautifully basically every time.
Best Passer – Carroll guard Sir’Timothy Hollins. While Carroll was building its first-quarter lead and staying within striking distance of Wossman’s lead for most of the game, Hollis was the reason. He was relentless in pushing the tempo throughout the game and was solid at passing out of the lane once the defense collapsed on his dribble-drive. He was a creative passer, too, which is always good to see in high school offenses that can get a little stale at times.
Best Off-the-Bench – Wossman guard Jailyn Natt. While this final score might look like Wossman controlled this thing wire to wire, that most certainly was not the case: Carroll started the game on a 9-0 run and it wasn’t until an And-1 in the final seconds of the first quarter that Wossman brought it within a possession. Enter Jailyn Natt: he drilled two 3’s in the first minutes of the third quarter – after Wossman missed all six of its 3’s in the first quarter – and gave Wossman a huge momentum boost. Carroll called a timeout but Wossman came out and poured even more points on the Bulldogs. His 3’s to start the second quarter changed the game completely and permanently.
Best Comeback Performance – Carroll guard Jarrell Gundy. He was one of my favorite players last year, a real breakout guard locally as a sophomore. So, this year, the first time I went to see Carroll, I was naturally excited to see his game after an offseason of work; I got there to discover that he wasn’t even in the building (to my knowledge). I later found out he had a broken wrist and was out recovering; he has since returned, playing in this game. He didn’t have a massive impact, but it was just good to see him out there. I hope to see him again later this year, hopefully as the full version of himself and ready to be a great guard again.
Best Gutsy Performance – Wossman forward Jalen Harris. He comes in off the bench at some point in the second quarter, and when he gets subbed out, he doesn’t go to the bench; he goes to the tunnel leading back to a locker room, keels over a garbage can and starts throwing up. He actually does it in a pretty low-key fashion – if I weren’t standing at the tunnel that he walked into, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it. A trainer checks on him, gets him some fluids and he returns to the bench as if nothing is wrong. I don’t think head coach Casey Jones even noticed, and I don’t think all of the assistants noticed, either.
Harris checks back into the game just a couple of minutes later….and then everyone notices. He logs a couple of minutes on the floor, then as Carroll is bringing the ball across the halfcourt line for an offensive possession, he crumbles right in front of the Wossman bench and throws up on the floor. Play stops for a few minutes while they get Harris comfortable in the tunnel and clean up the floor.
Get this: He comes back in the second half. He played a few minutes, even got a bucket and pieced together some solid defensive possessions in in the second half. Absolutely amazing.
Best Yet to Come – The Rematch. Feb. 10 at Carroll will be the third time we see these two face off – they played once in the Don Redden, a Carroll win, before this matchup – so we settle the tie then. But, here’s the catch: last year, these teams settled into a tie for the District 2-3A title and had to play a tiebreaker game at West Monroe before the playoffs (which Wossman won). Wouldn’t it be nice if luck goes our way, plus a Carroll win in the rematch, to have another tiebreaker for a FOURTH Carroll-Wossman game in one season? I wouldn’t hate it.
Best Story to Watch Going Forward – The aftermath for Carroll. As I just mentioned in the previous bit, Carroll lost the tiebreaker district championship game last year; losing it forced Carroll into a seed that made it take to the road for the quarterfinals, when it ultimately lost. I’m not saying last year’s Carroll team would have beat last year’s St. Louis team if the game were at Carroll, but I’m sure those Bulldogs would have loved to have found out. How the Bulldogs react to this is huge, just for the fact that the Bulldogs certainly don’t want to repeat last year’s scenario of taking to the road right before the Top 28.