For the past month and a half, the newly formed Smithville Black basketball team has been playing its heart out every Saturday in the Megalopolis league.
Despite being a new team, Smithville Black ended up finishing its regular season with a 5-1 record. The Black’s only loss was when Elgin beat them by three points in week two.
According to head coach Tay Campbell, up until the championship game this past Saturday, Elgin went undefeated during its two-year history with the Megalopolis league.
In the championship game, however, everything changed. Two-seeded Smithville Black beat one-seeded Elgin by a score of 50-46, which is a high-scoring game for their age.
“The kids were really excited,” Campbell said. “As soon as the clock ticked off, kids ran out from every direction. I had to make sure they didn’t get out of control.”
To decide who played in the championship game, a tournament was held at the Smithville Junior High gym all day on Saturday. The teams that participated in the tournament were Smithville Black, Smithville Orange, Elgin, Fayetteville, Round Top and La Grange.
According to Campbell, Smithville Black defeated three-seeded Round Top in its semi-final game by a score of 42-22, while Elgin beat four-seeded Fayetteville by a score of 44-28.
Smithville Black’s lead scorers were Kyle Cooper with an impressive 18 points, Logan Lacaz (16) and Nic Baranowski (10). The other scorers were Michael Campbell, Garrett Mathis and Noah Rinehart.
Campbell said one of the key things that helped the Black in their championship game was their improved free throw shooting.
“Smithville improved its free throw shooting from its first meeting (with Elgin) from 4 for 18 in the loss to 10 for 15 in the championship, including 3 for 3 in the final minute,” he said.
Michael and Mathis also combined for 20 assists.
“I am very proud of what these young men accomplished in such a relatively short time,” Campbell said. “We continually challenged them and intentionally put them in adverse, competitive and sometimes unfair conditions and expected them to respond. They did, and it was a great and inspiring experience for myself, coach Rogers and coach Nunn.”
Campbell said when he formed the new Smithville Black basketball team a little over a month ago, he had no idea it would be so successful.
“This ended up going way beyond my wildest dreams,” he said. “It was one of those things where you just had to put it in the big guy’s hands and see what happened.”
The coach did say that having the community’s support made a huge difference.
“It is such a blessing to have children in this town and know that the community supports them in so many ways,” Campbell said.