Is the “Storm” here? The Dougherty Trojans could be peaking at the right time

ALBANY – The Dougherty Trojans have now won five straight, have improved their record to 12-10 and have jumped into the top ten statewide rankings. Basketball teams usually get better as the season progresses and sometimes go through difficulty to get better. With Dougherty’s win Friday night over Monroe the Trojans looked as though may be a force to be reckoned with in the post-season. That brought up the memory of a comment early in the basketball season when Dougherty head coach Bakari Bryant said “A storm is coming, and it’s not Monroe.” 

At the time his team was battling against some of the best high school basketball teams in the state. They lost to no.9-ranked Lee County and no. 6-ranked Westover. They lost to top-ranked Beach and No. 4-ranked Johnson – both from Savannah. Then they beat defending state champion Spencer and a night later lost to No.5-ranked Calhoun County. They lost both games in the U-Save It Christmas tournament to highly touted teams Hillgrove and Park Crossing. On New Year’s Eve, they lost to 7A powerhouse Newton. They demolished region foes Crisp County and Columbus before edging Monroe by five. Then a 30-point loss to top-ranked (Class A) Greenforest and an overtime loss to Lee County on MLK Day. Then four straight region wins, except this time instead of beating Columbus by 40 points, they won by four. Friday night they hung a 20-point loss on No.6-ranked Monroe, a feat that has not been done since MaxPreps put information online in 2005. 

 So the natural question after beating their crosstown and region rival by 20 points is, “Is the storm here?”

Bryant wouldn’t acknowledge that his team is where he wants them, just that they are on the way.

“I don’t want to come off conceited – but the only team that scares me is Dougherty and its four syllables – consistency,” Bryant said when reminded of how impressive his team was Friday night at Monroe. “But in the game before, we were not impressive.” (He was referring to the 4-point win over Columbus, a team they beat by 40 earlier in the year).

“Throughout my years of coaching, I’ve been somewhat successful,” said Bryant.  “I believe God gave me the talent to take the hand I am dealt and make it work. I’ve been blessed to have athletes and basketball players throughout my coaching career. When God made this job at Dougherty available for me I knew it was going to be a new beginning for me to do things the right way and that’s keeping Him above all worldly things and success. I had and got a special group of young men who did not know their capabilities. My goal and pretty sure others before me were to change the mindset and culture of the east side of Albany.,” the coach continued. “Still got a long way to go but I really feel that we are headed in the right direction. I love what I do but I make sure I love God more and my coaches and players know that.”

Dougherty’s backcourt has been strong all season – Jai’on Burns, Juwuan Jinks, Jacob Stallworth, Kaleke Singletary-Jinks, and Ja’Marcus Harris run the floor as well as any high school team in the area. What has happened lately has been the rise of post-players Markelle Jones and Maurice Davis, Jr. who both stood out in Friday night’s win at Monroe. Octovious Griffin and Abraham Anderson are also a force on the inside.

The Trojans have two regular season games remaining – both teams that they have beaten – Thomasville and Carver, so barring a total meltdown, the Trojans should claim the top seed in the upcoming region tournament and Monroe should claim the second spot. If that happens Dougherty will host the boy’s semi-final matchups on February 16 and then the championship game is Friday, February 17th at Carver. That means you might have to drive to Columbus to watch Dougherty and Monroe compete against each other again in the region championship game.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]