Three Themes Maplewood-Pearl-Cohn
Pearl-Cohn calmly left Maplewood High School Friday evening with a convincing 63-40 win. The Firebirds remain a one-loss team entering late January. Here are three takeaways from the Firebirds’ win over the Maplewood Panthers: Tyrone Marshall Smashed Heads Senior wing…
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Continue ReadingPearl-Cohn calmly left Maplewood High School Friday evening with a convincing 63-40 win.
The Firebirds remain a one-loss team entering late January.
Here are three takeaways from the Firebirds’ win over the Maplewood Panthers:
Tyrone Marshall Smashed Heads
Senior wing Tyrone Marshall (Pearl-Cohn) destroyed Maplewood in the second half, completely dominating the defense with his slashing ability.
“Tyrone had a monster game,” conceded Coach Wilson.
Marshall punched home 6 dunks, many of them in halfcourt sets. His bounce is wonderful, but more impressively, Marshall can handle the ball like a shooting guard. He is a little loose for a college lead guard, but he easily plays as a secondary ball-handler at the low-major Division 1 level.
“I think we just sorta got caught up in the show and watched his dunks versus guarding and defending like we are capable of doing,” said Maplewood High School Head Coach Ty Wilson. “We didn’t do a good job.”
Marshall is ranked #22 in the state for PrepHoops.com/Tennessee and truly a unique talent.
Jermaine Donnell on Tyrone
Jermaine Donnell, like Tyrone, is worthy of college recruiting. They are both likely to play college basketball in 2020-2021. Evenso, Marshall exposed a weakness in Jermaine’s game.
“He needs to work on guarding on the perimeter,” observed Coach Wilson of his star forward Jermaine Donnell. “We knew that Tyrone would be a guy that could be versatile, play inside and outside. We felt like, as far as what Jermaine can bring to the table, we are confident that Jermaine could guard Tyrone on the perimeter, when he is playing with confidence. He had spurts where he did and other spurts where he didn’t do a good job. Like I said, it will be something that we can learn from going into our next game and hopefully Jermaine can as well. In our mindset, the further away he is from the offensive glass helped us. That was our mindset.”
Jermaine Donnell (PrepHoopsTN #53) projects as a small college 4-man. Junior Colleges are talking to Coach Wilson and Jermaine with interest in signing him. Donnell is still looking for more schools as options and obviously wants to make his mark as a senior, as well.
Here we go. Panthers finally score and the gym is on fire. LOVE Metro bball.
Alex Otero dunked one dude to inspire Pearl fans, which are generally some of the most vociferous in Nashville. IMO
5-3 Pearl up 1Q.
— Prep Hoops Tennessee (@PrepHoopsTN) January 18, 2020
Marcus Will Return
Senior point guard Marcus Fitzgerald Jr. sustained an injury at the turn of the calendar year. After the victory, I talked briefly to Fitzgerald Jr. about his timeline for return.
“I will be back next week,” stated Fitzgerald Jr.
The star point guard is playing his senior season with Pearl-Cohn and, when healthy, the best senior PG in middle Tennessee. Pearl-Cohn improves to 4-0 with the victory. They are the lone unbeaten team in District DAA. The Firebirds play another road game next week, this time at RePublic. Maplewood (10-5) plays at Stratford (6-7) Tuesday night.
Follow @AndrewForce8. Read a coach profile on Coach Ty WIlson of Maplewood.