Westside adjusts, continues to win after transfer
When the Westside boys basketball team took the floor Tuesday against Southwest, a big piece of a team expected to compete for a state title was missing.
Tuesday marked the first home game without 6-foot-11 Xavier signee Kentrevious Jones. While Westside pulled away late for a 71-63 victory, Jones was finishing his first day of school more than 1,000 miles to the northeast, at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut.
The loss of “Big K” has brought about some changes for the top team in the Score Atlanta Class 3A rankings. No longer do the Seminoles have the dominating inside presence who can control the boards.
“Rebounding still continues to be a struggle for us,” head coach Josh Grube said. “We work it every day at practice, and we’re still not seeing it translate on to the court. But as a coaching staff, we know how important it is for us to get where we want to be. We’ve got to get better rebounding the basketball. We’re going to continue to work it. We know that it’s an important part to us and what we want to do this year.”
Still, Westside (10-3) is finding ways to win.
Jones made his final appearance in a Westside uniform Dec. 17, when the Seminoles defeated Pike County 83-46. Since then, Westside is 5-1, winning three of the four games it played in at Wheeler’s Tournament of Champions Holiday Classic along with the Southwest win and a 90-79 win over Northside just before Christmas.
“We had to pick up our play,” point guard Samone Reed said. “We were playing with nationally ranked teams who were better than the regular competition that we’re used to. We had to pick it up as a team.”
What happened at Wheeler could go down as a turning point for Westside after losing Jones.
All three of Westside’s victories at Wheeler came by single-digit margins. The Seminoles beat Spain Park (Alabama) 80-74, Oak Ridge (Orlando, Florida) 77-76 and Lincoln (Brooklyn, New York) 61-59 in overtime. Lincoln is ranked 22nd in the USA Today Super 25, while Westside’s lone loss in the tournament, 60-39 to Scotlandville (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), came against the No. 15 team in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 rankings.
“What a great experience that was,” Grube said. “We played three outstanding teams from out-of-state, and we were fortunate to come out with three out of four wins. We played good three out of the four games, didn’t play good in one game. But it was a great experience for us.”
What might be more important, however, was the time the team spent together off the court. The team spent the length of the tournament together, staying in a hotel.
“We had a great time bonding,” Reed said. “Everybody was in each others’ rooms. It also helped us on the court with our composure and getting to know where we like to be at and things like that. We just played at our pace.”
Jones averaged 20.3 points and 7.9 rebounds, a good chunk of Westside’s production. But Westside still has the services of junior shooting guard Khavon Moore, another top-level prospect who is averaging 20.8 points and 9.8 rebounds. Trey Foster, a senior, has emerged as another double-digit scorer, averaging 11 points.
Reed, meanwhile, is averaging 9.2 points and 5.2 assists and has been asked to increase his ball movement abilities. His passing skills helped open up shooters in the latter stages Tuesday against Southwest, and the team responded by providing him a couple of open 3-point looks that were converted.
“You want to get exposed, and I felt like we did get exposed,” said Grube of the Wheeler tournament. “We played some quality competition, with two or three guys on every team nationally ranked, and to come away winning three out of those four, I feel very, very pleased with that week.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Westside adjusts, continues to win after transfer."