Swamp Foxes run away with girls basketball awards

By: By Justin Driggers Morning News jdriggers@florencenews.com | SCNow
Published: March 22, 2009

After knocking on the door the last few seasons, the Marion girls basketball team finally took the next step this year by bringing home the program’s first state championship in more than 50 years.
And no championship team has ever gotten that far without great players or great coaching.
Sophomore Geneika Brantley powered the Swamp Foxes all season, averaging 17 points and 12 re-bounds per game.
For that, Brantley has been named the Morning News Player of the Year. And for guiding the Swamp Foxes to a 24-2 record and a state title, Marion coach Leon Sturkey has been named the Morning News coach of the year.
In just her second year of varsity ball, Brantley took over as the Swamp Foxes go-to scorer and top rebounder.
“I wasn’t nearly as nervous out there this year as I was during my first year of varsity,” Brantley said. “I just focused on the game more and made sure to work hard.”
Brantley had a double-double every game this season, including the playoffs. In one playoff game, she scored 30 points, pulled down 18 rebounds and blocked nine shots.
“You can’t play well without good teammates,” Brantley said. “They gave me the ball when I had the opportunity to score and I made sure to do my part on the defensive and rebounding ends.”
A big part of Brantley’s success this year also came from having a better mid-range jump shot.
“It helped me avoid a lot of double teams under the basket,” Brantley said. “I could stand outside and shoot a little more.”
The Swamp Foxes captured the state title in Sturkey’s fifth season as head of the program after back-to-back 19-win campaigns the previous two years.
“I knew the team had potential,” Sturkey said. “We always set our goals at the beginning of the sea-son and the girls worked extremely hard to accomplish all of them.
“It wasn’t really anything different that I did this season. I think the team as a whole was a lot more mature.”
Sturkey’s best coaching move might have come just before the state championship when he had his team focus on free throw shooting, a big factor in the Swamp Foxes’ win.
“We knew it was going to make a difference at some point,” Sturkey said. “We picked a good time to perform well at the foul line.”
Despite blowing an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter at Columbia, Sturkey kept his team focused on the task at hand.
“I told them not to panic and just do what had gotten us to that point,” he said. “We beat the press, made the foul shots and won the title. It was a tremendous feeling for the girls and the community.”

Swamp Foxes run away with girls basketball awards

Share This:

More from this channel:

Reader Comments

Deal of the Day

Weather

Latest News Video

Things to Do

Links We Like