Discovery dominates Liberty in regular season finale
Cameron Phillips controls for Discovery against Liberty Middle
Discovery Middle School wrapped up their best basketball season in recent history Thursday night as they defeated Liberty Middle 50-21 to sweep the two regular season meetings between Madison’s two middle schools’ eighth grade teams.
The game was moved to James Clemens gym to accommodate the larger crowd.
The Panthers finished the regular season at 18-2 and went 9-1 in the 6-team county race to finish first entering next week’s Madison County Middle School Tournament which will be played at Monrovia Middle.
“From top to bottom this is the best team I’ve had,” said Coach Brad Jefferson who has been coaching the basketball team for 9 years. “I’ve got a good five starting group and three or four off the bench, all of them can play.”
Discovery jumped out to a quick 13-4 lead after a quarter and led 25-6 at halftime. Lebron Ray and A. J. Harris each had 6 points to lead Discovery in the first half. The lead grew to as big as 33-8 in the third quarter after a 3-point play by Paul Jordan.
Jordan led Discovery in scoring with 10 points and Myles Parker led Liberty with 9.
Discovery dominated the boards and got most of their points inside the paint as 6-foot-3 big men Lebron Ray and Gavin Lewis scored almost at will.
“We got two big guys. One can handle the ball real well and one can bang the boards,” said Jefferson of Ray who handles the ball outside some and Lewis who plays the low post.
“A lot of these guys play AAU ball and they play together and they know each other,”Jefferson said.
Point guard A. J. Harris moved in from East Limestone and has been a starter all season.
He leads the team in scoring with an average of 18 points per game.
Paul Jordan, a 6-foot-0 guard, is in his first year at Discovery after transferring from Liberty.
“He’s had a great season,” Jefferson said of Jordan. “He is super fast. This is his first year of organized basketball. He played recreation league ball and he is going to get better.”
DMS coach Brad Jefferson
The big question now is which one of Madison’s two high schools will each of the players move up to. That question is especially important for Lebron Ray who is already considered one of the top football players to come along in recent history in Madison.
Liberty Middle coach Travis Hunt said that two of his best players, Mikela and Mickael Stewart, had to leave the team after the first semester when they moved down the street but out of Liberty’s zone.
Discovery’s only loss came to Buckhorn Middle in double overtime and they avenged that loss by beating the Bucks by 20 points later in the season.
Earlier in the girls game, Discovery won 28-24.
