Legion Collegiate basketball sweeps Lewisville, takes another step toward bright future
Players on the Legion Collegiate basketball teams knew what they were getting into this season.
They knew they wouldn’t be in a region this year. They knew they wouldn’t compete for a state championship right away.
Some players — like seniors Jermany Mapp and Somer Wilson on the girls’ team, who’d already signed to play college basketball before they played a game in a Lancers uniform — knew that they wouldn’t ever play in front of a Legion Collegiate home crowd, which is playing an all-away schedule in its inaugural season.
But they all bought into this: Legion Collegiate, Rock Hill’s newest public charter school, will have a bright future.
“Our goal for next year, and I’ll put it out for everybody, is to win a state championship,” Legion Collegiate boys’ basketball head coach Otis Wilson said after his team’s 64-48 win on Friday. “Everything we’re doing, from the schedule I put together — and it’s a tough schedule — (is done) in the hopes of winning a state championship next year.”
Girls basketball: ‘People gotta listen’
The Lancers girls’ head basketball coach Asia Dozier emerged from the locker room right before the boys’ tip-off, about 20 minutes after the final buzzer went off for her team’s game. She had a lot to talk about with her team, she said.
Even though the Lancers won, 73-10.
“We just had to re-emphasize some of those little things,” said Dozier, who was part of the winningest class in University of South Carolina women’s basketball history by the time she graduated in 2016.
The little things she’s referring to? She preached boxing out, not reaching on defense — several things that likely didn’t catch the eye of the casual fan on Friday night, who was otherwise distracted by the slew of Lancer steals and fast-break layups and offensive rebounds. Several Legion Collegiate players outscored their collective opponent on Friday night: Mapp had 22 points, Tarewyn Dawson had 11, and Nadia Burns had 14.
But those “little things” were addressed by Dozier, a coach who has helped her young program amass quite a bit of experience — including a double overtime win at Westwood, a team that beat the formidable South Pointe Stallions earlier this week, and a two-point loss to Byrnes, a perennial state powerhouse.
“I made our schedule the way it is on purpose because I wanted us to be tested,” she told The Herald. “It was a promise that I made to the girls, too, who decided to come: Even though we wouldn’t be able to play for a state championship, we’d have state-championship-caliber games.”
Dozier said that she has big plans for her budding program, including visions of making her team one that competes for national championships, not just state titles. But that will take time to cultivate — especially considering the fact that her program’s name isn’t widely known.
“We don’t have a track record,” she said. “I like being underrated. It just puts a little chip on our shoulder, makes us go that much harder.
“Eventually, you make enough noise, people gotta listen.”
Boys basketball: ‘A young team’
Ask coach Wilson about his youth, and he’ll give an answer with a satisfied smile.
“I tell ya, I woudn’t trade these kids for the world,” he said.
His kids, like their girls’ team counterparts, didn’t have a gym to practice in over the summer — so they spent offseason afternoons in the heat lifting weights, running hills and doing defensive slides in the grass, Wilson said.
“We got a young team,” Wilson said. “I feel like once we get gelling, get everything together, we’ll be very competitive. But right now, I’m happy where we are.”
The boys’ game wasn’t quite in hand until the fourth quarter — after a final Lewisville push with three minutes left in the game to cut it to 12 was stunted by a pull-up jumpshot from Marcus Kell, who finished with a team-high 22 points, and a ferocious dunk by Roman Bowie, the team’s sole senior, who finished with eight.
Per Maxpreps, Legion Collegiate will play Mount Zion Christian Academy on Saturday, and Lewisville will welcome rival Great Falls to Richburg on Saturday. Both girls’ games will start at 6 p.m., and the boys’ teams will start directly after, around 7:30 p.m.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 11:21 PM.
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