2018-19 roster preview: Lausanne Lynx
Marvis Davis has been coaching high school basketball for 13 years, almost as long as the kids he’s coaching now have been alive.
He’s been at Lausanne Collegiate School for three years, and has competed for a state title since he’s been there. This year’s goal is no different from the past. Davis and company not only want to compete for a state championship, but hoist the trophy at season’s end.
Luckily, he has a group of players that are willing to practice hard 365 days a year to prepare for a successful season. Davis is the type of coach that likes his teams to play fast. His backcourt of Skylar Forest and Alden Applewhite fits his system. Both players can play both guard positions. Both players can score from different areas of the court and are careful with the basketball.
Forest is a senior, while Applewhite is only a sophomore, with room to grow to become an all-around solid player. Forest, 6-foot-3, 215-pounds, led the Lynx in scoring (62) in June’s Jerry Peters Memphis Summer Classic. Applewhite, 6-5, had 54 points to go along with his 19 rebounds and 15 assists.
Davis likes how both guards can complement one another while they’re on the floor together.
“When you got guys like those two that can actually run the floor and create shots on their own, it just makes the game more fun,” Davis said. “We try to get up and down. We try to get the ball in our playmaker’s hands.
“Those guys can flat out score, so it’s definitely a benefit to have those guys in the lineup.”
Lausanne has other weapons outside of Applewhite and Forest. Junior combo guard Jalen Bo Montgomery, 6-4, gives the team another solid scoring option in the backcourt. Cameron Sims, a cornerback for the school’s football team, is the Lynx’s best on-ball defender. Davis added he can get to the basket and shoot from the outside.
Sims committed to the Central Arkansas Bears Football program on August 27.
Dylan Woods of the 2021 class plays big to be only 6-2. He has a niche for rebounding. Point guard Dylan Andrews, 5-10, can provide solid minutes off the bench. He takes good care of the basketball. One of the most improved players Davis has on the roster is power forward Jonathan DeJurnett. DeJurnett didn’t get to play as a freshman due to a gruesome leg injury that led to him being unable to play AAU basketball over the summer.
He returned to Lausanne for his sophomore season and provided solid minutes. In the classic, DeJurnett scored 36 points and pulled down 24 rebounds. He averaged around two blocks for the Lynx last season, but wants to push that number up to five.
“His goal is to average double digits in scoring and double digits in rebounding,” Davis said about DeJurnett. “His timing to rebound and defend is really good. If he can get his block total up, we are going to be really, really good.”
Guard Nick Floyd, a transfer from St. George’s Independent School, will be eligible to play for Lausanne in December. He’s 5-10, with solid ball handling skills. Floyd sees the court just as good as any other guard in the 2020 class.