Louisiana Basketball Report: Nationally Ranked Players Highlight Busy Tournament Week in Baton Rouge

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Nationally Ranked Players Highlight Busy Tournament Week in Baton Rouge

Glen Oaks, Istrouma Headline Woodlawn-BR Tournament

Pictured Clockwise: Brian Williams, Tre' Drye, Ronald McGhee, JJ Thomas

Starting tonight Woodlawn High will host the Annual Woodlawn Shootout tournament that will feature Glen Oaks, Istrouma, Helen Cox, Plaquemine, H.L. Bourgeois, Broadmoor, Scotlandville and the host Woodlawn. With 4 games today starting at 3:30 and the final game starting at 8:00 p.m it will be a great day of basketball at Woodlawn today. The top matchups of the day will be the 5:00 game between Istrouma and 2009 Class 3A state semi-fianlist Plaquemine High. It will feature long-time coach Denny Wright of Plaquemine and his former assistant Coach Marvin Dotson of Istrouma. Last year these two teams had two very good games, one in which Istrouma came back from 14 down to beat the Green Devils at home. The other game to watch will be 5A Scotlandville and 4A Glen Oaks, who is coming off a 2009 4A State Semi-Final appearance as well. This matchup is very intriguing. It features two division 1 signees in Brian Williams(Oklahoma State) of Glen Oaks and JJ Thomas(Stephen F. Austin) of Scotlandville. This game will be a great night cap for the day.

Schedule:

Broadmoor vs. Helen Cox, 3:30 p.m.
Plaquemine vs. Istrouma, 5 p.m.

Woodlawn vs. H.L. Bourgeois, 6:30 p.m.

Glen Oaks vs. Scotlandville, 8 p.m

Players To Watch:

Istrouma High Sophomore Darius Johnson

at the Rivals 150 Camp in Houston, TX

Broadmoor- Colby Barnes 6'5" G/F Senior

Helen Cox- Brocton Bush 5'9" PG Junior

Plaquemine- Demarcus Veal 6'3" F Senior

Istrouma- Ronald "RJ" McGhee 6'5" G Senior

Istrouma- Darius Johnson 6'2" G Sophomore

Istrouma- Joel Jackson 6'3" F Junior

Istrouma- Steven Jackson 6'4" F Senior

Woodlawn- Braylon Lazare 6'6" F Senior

Woodlawn- Eric Vidrine 6'3" G Senior

Woodlawn- Craig McFerrin 6'6" F Junior

H.L. Bourgeois- Phil Jackson 5'10" G Junior

Scotlandville- JJ Thomas 6'5" F Senior

Scotlandville- Levi Wright 6'2" G Junior

Scotlanville- Deshaun Washington 5'10" Sophomore

Glen Oaks- Brian Williams 6'5" Senior

Glen Oaks- Tre' Drye 6'6" F Junior

Glen Oaks- Brandon Johnson 6'1" PG Senior

Glen Oaks- Andre Scott 6'2" G Senior

Rivals.com Top 100 Player Highlights Donaldsonville Tournament

Pictured: Left- Keith Fleming and Right- Shavon Coleman

Thibodaux High standout Shavon "Sugar" Coleman and his THS Tigers will be in action today at 5:00 in Donaldsonville as they will play St. Amant. Coleman, a 6'6" SG is currently ranked 97th in the post-summer rankings on rivals.com, and is looking to lead Thibodaux back to the playoffs and advance to the Top 28 after running into a buzz saw in eventual 5A state champ Ouachita in the second round last season. The Tigers will be tested today as they go against Coach Gary Duhe who is one of the top coaches in the Baton Rouge Metro Area. Leading the way for St. Amant will be 6'8" senior center Steven Fulkerson. Other teams in the tournament include Class 1A White Castle(quarterfinalist team last season), 5A Assumption, 5A East Ascension and host Donaldsonville of 2A.

At Donaldsonville High Schedule:

St. Amant vs. Thibodaux, 5 p.m.

White Castle vs. Donaldsonville, 6:30 p.m.
Assumption vs. East Ascension, 8 p.m.

Players To Watch:

Thibodaux- Shavon Coleman 6'6" SG Senior
St. Amant- Steven Fulkerson 6'8" C Senior
White Castle- Dontreal Thomas 6'6" F Senior
East Ascension- Keith Fleming 6'5" F Senior

#1 Ranked Freshman in the Country Highlights

Round-Robin at Episcopal

Picture: Brian Bridgewater Pictured: Gervaughn McGhee

Episcopal High School will host it's annual pre-Thanksgiving round-robin this week. Included in the this year's event are some of the top young players in South Louisiana along with HoopScoop.com's #1 rated freshman Brian Bridgewater. Bridgewater, a 6'5" 215 lb frosh leads a pack of youngsters that include St. Thomas Aquinas' Zavarel "Zay" Jackson and Stephen Wronkowski, McKinley's Darryl Milburn and Redemptorist's Gervaughn McGhee. As we get more information I will post the schedule, all we know are the teams participating are host Episcopal of 2-A, 5-A Walker, 3-A Redemptorist, 2-A St. Thomas Aquinas, 4-A McKinley and class C Jehovah Jireh.

Players to Watch:

Episcopal- Brian Bridgewater 6'5" F Freshman
Episcopal- Robert Peterson 6'3" G Senior
McKinley- Daryl Milburn 6'3" G Sophomore
McKinley- Jon Bond 6'4" G Senior
St. Thomas Aquinas- Zay Jackson 6'1" G Junior
St. Thomas Aquinas- Stephen Wronkowski 6'4" G Sophomore
St. Thomas Aquinas- Brock and Blake Duncan 6'3" G's Juniors
Redemptorist- Gervaughn McGhee 6'4" G Sophomore

59th Annual Wedge Keyes Tournament

Zachary Sophomore Morris Wright

The state's longest running high school basketball tournament will have a little bit of a twist this season. The annual event that is typically held at Baker High since the tournaments beginning in 1960 will move to Zachary High for the 2009 version. Baker High will still host the event but will not be using their gym due to repairs on the roof. This years tournament features a lot of players that are under the radar that nobody really knows about. The best players could possibly both be sophomores in Morris Wright of Zachary and Keith Broome of Tara. Wright is a silky smooth guard that can flat score the basketball and will be able to show that ability with former Zachary players Mason Leggett and Phillip Carey gone due to graduation. Broome is a small, shifty guard that can shoot the 3 and handle the ball. He is a very good compliment to senior Joe Kirk of Tara. Another player to watch is Ed Brown of Baker who is coming off a 36 point outburst against Belaire on Monday night. Teams in this tournament are host Baker, Zachary, Tara, Belaire, Northeast and St. Helena Central.

Schedule at Zachary High:

Zachary vs. Northeast, 5:30 p.m.

Tara vs. Baker, 7 p.m.

Players to Watch:

Zachary- Morris Wright 5'11" PG Sophomore

Baker- Edward Brown 6'2" G Senior

Tara- Joe Kirk 6'3" G Senior

Tara- Keith Broome G Sophomore

Belaire- Dorian Copeland 6'3" Senior

Other tournaments of Note:

East Iberville will be hosting their annual Robert Grace Invitational. Pointe Coupee Central is the only team other then East. Iberville that I know of that will be there.

Port Allen will also be hosting a tournament this week as well. Two other teams besides the host that I know for sure that will be there are Class C Family Christian and Brusly.

Pictured Above: Pointe Coupee Central's DJ Cobb Port Allen High's Tyler Washington