By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
The boys finalists for News-Times Basketball Player of the Year include El Dorado’s Brenden Johnson and Joderrio Ramey, Parkers Chapel’s Nate Garrett-Evans, Junction City’s Jarrodney Tubbs and Strong’s Derrian Davis.
The finalists will be honored and the winner announced at the News-Times Scholar-Athlete Awards Banquet on May 31.
Ramey, a 6-3 junior, burst onto the scene for the Wildcats. He led the team with 17.5 points per game and 5.3 assists per game. The numbers are more impressive considering he was primarily a junior varsity player as a sophomore.
“He was a surprise to everybody else. He wasn’t really a surprise to us,” said El Dorado coach Gary Simmons. “People don’t keep a lot of stats during JV stuff but Joe averaged about 20 points a game during that JV season. A lot of times, they just played halves. When it was time to pick a point guard, we kind of thought about BJ at first. But, after watching Joe during the summer and during the spring, he just came. He does a great job penetrating. I guess he was a surprise to some, especially opposing coaches who didn’t know anything about him, but he made a name for himself this year.”
Johnson was anything but a surprise for El Dorado. The 6-2 junior started as a sophomore on the Wildcats’ 6A state runner-up team. He expanded his role this season, averaging 16.6 points per game with 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists. Johnson shot 72 percent from the line and made 49-of-129 from 3-point range.
“BJ led us in scoring and picked up his role from last year where he was just, basically, a spot-up shooter and guarded everybody’s best player,” said Simmons. “He still did a lot of defending everybody’s best player this year when we had to have him do it. He’s a very good player, a very good leader. He’s a quiet leader, leads by example, works hard every day.”
Garrett-Evans, a 6-2 senior guard, scored more than 500 points for the Trojans, who advanced to the 2A state semifinals. A long-range sniper, he averaged 17 points per game while shooting 80 percent from the line and 40 percent from the field.
“Three-point shooting wise, he stretched the defense out, opened things up for us inside. Teams had to pay so much attention to him, it opened things up for other guys,” said Parkers Chapel coach Josh Langley. “We were pretty well rounded this year so when they tried to take him away, we had other scorers and when they tried to take them away, it opened things up for Nate. It puts a lot of pressure on a defense when you have a kid who can shoot it like he does. They can’t stop everybody.
“He’s a high IQ kid, very fond to coach, loves the game.”
Tubbs led Junction City to the 3A state semifinals, averaging 14 points and 11 rebounds per game. At 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, the junior center was a load to defend against in the post.
“He’s a dominant post player, a game-changer type dude,” said Junction City coach Kendall Hutcheson. “Everybody had to game-plan for him and figure out a way to stop him. He’s hard to stop one-on-one. It’s a big compliment for a post player to see junk defenses run for him. He changed the way people had to play us.”
Davis, a 6-2 sophomore, started every game at point guard for the Bulldogs, who advanced to the 1A State Tournament. He averaged 24.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.
“Derrian is a really coachable kid. He does exactly what a coach asks him to do,” said Strong coach Greg Anthony. “I was a little concerned putting him in as the starting point guard at the start of the year. Coming in as a sophomore in the league we were in, I didn’t know how he would respond to having the ball in his hands as much as he did. Early on, I wasn’t on him a lot. When we went up north over the Christmas holiday, you could really see a difference in him, starting to get confidence in himself. He got more of a scorer’s mentality. Things just started clicking for him.”