5 Key Questions: Lee’s Summit North vs Central High School
Lee’s Summit North was able to come alive late and grab a win vs the Central Indians from Saint Joseph on Saturday at the 810Varsity Tipoff. Although the 55-39 score implies that the game might have been a blow out, the game was a two point game late in the 3rd quarter. It was then when the Broncos buckled down on defense and went on a scoring run to take total control of the game. Javaunte Hawkins led the Broncos with 23 points, and the Indians were led by Noah Cameron with 12 points.
What are the Broncos missing?
A few things that are going to cause some fits for the Broncos this year looks to be size and depth. They have the athletes and skilled players to compete with most maybe every team around the area, but without a big bench, they are probably going to run into issues. Losing quite a bit of seniors from last year’s team, the Broncos will have to rely on team play and sticking together. They do return some key parts from last year’s team which does help, but they have a lot of new comers as well. The Broncos do have big man Elijah Farr, but there isn’t much after that. Tommy Erwin and Jeremy Root were able to log key and critical minutes on Saturday, but the Broncos are going to have to play with more intensity and scrappiness.
How high is the Ceiling for the Central Indians?
This is a tough question considering the Indians lost so much from last year’s team. Losing their top two scorers to graduation and another decent player to Blue Springs for football, the Indians are going to have to fight and work hard for wins this season. They do have a few key players coming back from last season in Noah Cameron, Samson Holcomb, and AJ Redman who all know the system and will have to become the leaders. All 3 of them have the ability to shoot the ball well, but if those 3 aren’t clicking, they will have to rely on youth to step up. Central will go through some growing pains, but look for them to make great progress as the season continues on.
Are Mikel Henderson and Javaunte Hawkins one of the best backcourts in the area?
With all of the great backcourts around the area, Mikel Henderson and Javaunte Hawkins will have to continue with their success and lead the Broncos with some big wins this season. These two both handle the ball very well and are very talkative on the court, but they aren’t the biggest guards out there. Using their quickness on both sides of the ball along with their basketball IQ are going to be key for them this season. Mikel is a great defender and usually will draw the task of the opposing team’s better guard while Javaunte has a quick trigger and will be relied on to do a lot of the scoring. These two have a high ceiling and it will be fun watching them over the next couple of years.
Who are the key newcomers for the Indians?
As said before, Central is quite young, and they will have to rely on some young players to step up this year. Saturday showed that they will have a bright future ahead. Freshman La’Var Felder has pretty good size for a young guard and wasn’t intimidated at all by the more experienced guards from Lee’s Summit. They also have freshman Will Small who started the game as the point guard and logged some quality minutes. Plus they have AJ Redman who was mentioned above. He played quite a bit last year as a freshman and will be relied on to lead and be a mentor for the young guys.
Are either of the teams capable of making a run?
While it was clear on Saturday that both teams still have quite a way to go, the Broncos do still have some potential down the road to compete with the best of them. They showed on Saturday at times that when they play together, they are hard to stop, but when they make mistakes, they will struggle. A player that they will rely on are Senior Logan Jenkins who has the ability to get to the rim, and he also has one of the better strokes from deep in the area. Also, look for Junior Jack Gatti to play a key role in the success of the Broncos. Central on the other hand will only go as far as their more experienced players can take them. Being so young, they are going to struggle, but they should be able to pick up some big wins this year. Although I don’t see them having the success they had last year, it will be a great year for the inexperienced players to develop and better themselves for years to come.