He plays with his heart on his sleeve and leaves it all on the court.
That’s who Malik Ferguson is.
Ferguson, a 6-foot-5-inch tall point guard and junior at Grovetown High School, finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists in Grovetown’s 78-58 win over region rival Evans on Feb. 4.
Ferguson spoke on that night’s performance and why he plays with so much energy.
“That’s the only way you can play. If you don’t play with that, you’re not going to play good at all,” he said. “I try to play my best – as hard as I can and win the game.”
Darren Douglas, Grovetown’s coach, said Ferguson’s size and basketball knowledge is what makes him a special player.
“He has extreme size for a point guard and when he is in attack mode, it is really hard for most high school guards to stay in front of him,” said Douglas. “He has also has a really good basketball IQ. He can see the second man and kick it off to somebody for a wide-open shot.”
This makes sense because Ferguson said LeBron James is one of people that made him fall in love with the game of basketball. James has one of the best basketball IQ’s the NBA has ever seen and is arguably the best player of all time.
[adrotate banner=”20″]
Douglas also said while Ferguson could improve in his leadership skills, he is continuing to grow in that category every day.
“I think our team all kind of leads collectively, he can grow in that area, but he is taking strides,” said Douglas. “We just want to keep it pushing that way, and I always tell him if you’re going to go to college or going to runs somebody’s program, you have to be the number one alpha dog leader.”
Grovetown finished the regular season 22-3 overall and 10-0 in the region. The Warriors finished the season on an 11-game win streak and are currently ranked third in Georgia AAAAAA Division. Their last game was an 82-59 win over Lakeside at home Tuesday to cap the regular season.
The Warriors will soon head into the Georgia High School State Playoffs. The next game date is to be announced.
