By Derek Thompson

The Selma Times-Journal

Ellwood Christian basketball coach Darrell Walker said twice as many players have been showing up to practice after they suffered losses at Selma High School’s 16-team playdate last week.

Walker’s philosophy of having as many players as possible show up to summer workouts has proven to be critical to the teams’ development after its close battle with 4A school Clarke County at Southside High School’s playdate Tuesday.

“They read my last interview with The Selma Times-Journal and saw where I said they weren’t coming out to practice,” Walker said. “This whole week I’ve had at least 10-15 boys everyday this week. Now they see that they have to come in and practice hard.”

While the Eagles fell 47-39, they came out scrapping and held the lead for much of the second half.

“We are a 1A school going against 4As, 5As and 6As,” Walker said. “But we told them on the basketball court it’s five-on-five. It doesn’t matter who you are you just have to come out and play hard and tough. I’m very proud of them coming out and scrapping. We can see that [we’ve] got a bright future ahead of us.”

Clarke County took advantage of a sluggish start from Ellwood and jumped out to an early 10-2 lead.

The Bulldogs held the largest lead (14 points) of the game before the Eagles closed the gap and were only down 23-18 at the end of the first 20-minute half.

The Eagles carried their offensive effort into the second half where there were four lead changes.

Rayford Mitchell led the bunch draining a three and laying up another shot to give his team its first lead of the game since its first basket.

The senior scored five more points later on to extend the lead to 34-27, but Ellwood could not hold on and the Bulldogs took off in the final minutes.

The Eagles also lost a later game to county rival Southside.

The game was close with under eight minutes to play, but the Panthers pulled away for a 20-point victory.

Walker said he hoped his players learned a lesson about the importance of practice.

“I have an incentive now,” Walker said. “If they miss practice from here on out there will be confrontation you will have to deal with come fall.”