By T. Scott Boatright
Ten different Panthers put points on the scoreboard Thursday night as Lincoln Prep rolled past Jonesboro-Hodge 72-19 in the District 1-1A opener for both teams.
Eighth-grader Isaiah Johnson entered the game for the Panthers significantly earlier than usual after Jarabi Levingston was hit with two quick fouls as Lincoln Prep coach Antonio Hudson called a time out to pull him and senior forward Zion Hicks out of the contest for a few minutes.
“Jabari got into early foul trouble but Isaiah (Johnson) came off the bench and ended up playing a big role for us,” Hudson said. “Jabari had two fouls and I can’t remember exactly what it was that Zion had done, but I just wanted to talk to both of them real quick. It wasn’t that Zion had done anything wrong, I just wanted to point something out and get him thinking.”
“So, when Jabari got those two early fouls, I called the timeout. Then after the timeout, (Jonesboro Hodge) Coach (Fred Hearn) came out trapping us, which we didn’t expect because we hadn’t seen them do. It kind of caught us off guard but we adjusted. My deal is wanting this team to grow and learn in every game we play, and I think we did that tonight.”
Lincoln Prep led 21-6 by the end of the first quarter and led 53-10 at halftime with a running clock beginning with 2:43 left in the second stanza.
“Once the score got to what it was, I told the team at halftime that we had done what we were supposed to do but now we needed to take the second half as an opportunity for us to get better,” Hudson said. “So we did some different defensive coverages in the third quarter just to give them some different looks. That’s something we’ve got to work on.
Hudson said getting scoring from his entire team was big at this point in the season.
“The thing is, Coach Lyons (late Grambling Lab legend Michael Lyons, who was Hudson’s high school coach), used to always talk about Murphy’s Law,” Hudson said. “You’ve got to be prepared for whatever might happen. So what I told them was that if something happened and the first five starters couldn’t play, we have to be able to trust the next guys coming in to be able to handle the load.
“That’s why I tell them everybody’s important on the team, not just the guys who get written about in the news and that people see every day. It’s everybody, from the guy who’s not dressing but working hard on the scout team in practice, to the starters. So it was good for everybody to get the opportunity to play. We’ve had a tough schedule with close games where we haven’t been able to do that, so it was good for it to happen like that tonight.”
Trey Spann played a big role in Lincoln Prep’s first-half surge, scoring 12 of his game high 17 by halftime.
Spann added three rebounds, three steals and two assists to his total stats.
“Trey has played really well the last couple of games,” Hudson said. “What he’s learning to understand is that people aren’t just going to stand there and let him shoot anymore. Everybody in the state of Louisiana that has played against Lincoln Prep or that will play Lincoln Prep knows that he can shoot the basketball. So, with that said, he has to find different ways to impact the game and that’s what he’s been doing. I think he’s averaging close to a double-double with his rebounding, too.
“Once Trey gets past the mental aspect, because he’s always so hard on himself, he’s a helluva player. I trust him. I have confidence in him even though as a coach, I’m not always going to be happy, there are times I have to get on players for a little bit, at the end of the day I still trust them and I trust the process with it.”
Johnson double-doubled with 10 points and 12 steals for the Panthers while adding five assists, four rebounds and a blocked shot while Levingston added 10 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal.
The Panthers also go eight points, three rounds, three assists and two steals from Josiah Spann, six points, six rebounds and a steal from Josh Kelly, four points from Karmelo Goins, two points and a rebound from Devin Shine, two points, two boards and a steal from Aiden Ferguson and two points and three rebounds from Nicholas Nelson.
Next scheduled for the Panthers, now 2-14 overall and 0-2 in District 1-1A, will be a 6 p.m. home game on Tuesday against Haynesville, weather permitting.
