Call it a hunch, but on Jan. 23, Jerry Hunter felt like he knew what Lavonta Ivery was feeling.
That was the day that Westside’s 6-foot-2 senior combo guard walked into the once friendly confines of Thomson High School’s basketball gym for the first time as the enemy.
Ivery was born and raised in Thomson. He spent his first three seasons playing for the hometown Bulldogs. After his sophomore campaign ended in a narrow Class AA semifinals loss to Windsor Forest, it looked like “state champion” and “Thomson” would be his eventual destiny.
That changed after Ivery’s junior year when he opted to step away from home and play his final season at two-time defending Class AA state champion Westside. He said it wasn’t necessarily him ring chasing, but rather, the move he felt was best for him to grow as a basketball player.
But Ivery, his new Patriot teammates and everybody in McDuffie County knew Jan. 23 would eventually come. And when it did, and when Ivery had to suit up in Thomson’s visiting locker room for the first time, Hunter, his new coach at Westside, took a moment to give him a little reverse psychology.
GETTING RID OF THE ‘CHATTER’
“When we got on the court and they called his name out in starting lineups, he came out and shook my hand and I told him, ‘Welcome home,’” Hunter said. “I whispered it in his ear.”
Why? Because Hunter knew the kind of stuff that was likely going through Ivery’s mind in that moment — in a hotly contested, highly anticipated region game complete with a standing-room-only crowd — and he wanted to cancel that noise and replace it with something more constructive.
“I tell my guys all the time, there’s two types of chatter you have to deal with in a basketball game,” Hunter said. “One is the chatter of the fans, and the other is the noise that’s between your ears. I try to tell them that you can’t become the noise. There’s already noise there with the crowds and the fans. You can’t add to that noise. So, once we quieted the noise between the ears, it’s just another high school basketball game.”
That two-word whisper seeped into Ivery’s conscience, and it helped recalibrate the way he thought about not only that game but his entire senior season at a new school.
The Patriots’ 55-42 win that night gave them a bit of get-back from the 71-68 loss Thomson handed them on their own home court back in December.
It gave a young but talented Westside squad confidence that it could go into a raucous, playoff-style environment and win. And it also reminded Ivery that basketball is much more a team game than an individual one.
“When we first came down there, the energy, the gym, the whole atmosphere was rocking,” Ivery said. “It was a lot of people and it felt like everybody was just looking at me, so I had to get used to it and just play my game out there.”
TIME TO GET DEFENSIVE
In his first three years at Thomson, Ivery was a scorer. He flashed the kind of “it-factor” on the court that made you believe he was meant to take big shots in big moments. But in this game, when hundreds of people were watching to see how he’d respond to it all, he went defensive.
Ivery’s assignment that night was to guard high-scoring Thomson senior Daquon Young. Young came in averaging well over 20 points per contest. That night he had two.
“Ivery’s an intelligent guy and mature for his age,” Hunter said. “Once he found out that stopping their No. 1 guy gave us a better chance of winning, he settled in. He rose to the occasion. Played a hell of a game defensively. He knew [Thomson] was only going to allow him to do so much, so he didn’t fall for the Ivery trying to beat Thomson thing. It was Westside trying to beat Thomson.”
Sure enough, the win felt good for the former Thomson star. It was satisfying. But there was also a business trip element to it. Ivery didn’t come to Westside to beat Thomson. He came to try and help a championship program make history with a third straight title, getting himself a ring in the process.
“It did feel a little different, playing against my old team,” Ivery said. “It was awkward. But we just had to get the job done. I just had to play my game. I knew before the game the crowd was going to get like that. But you gotta just block everybody out, stick to the game plan, and that’s to win.”
And, more than not, Westside’s game plan this season has been to win with defense and the kind of transition offense that comes as its reward. It’s a new-look Westside squad, still with tons of talent but absent of much playoff experience.
NEW LOOK WESTSIDE
More than 70% of Westside’s offensive output graduated after seniors Khalon Hudson, Jalexs Ewing and AuMauri Tillman moved on to college. That left point guard Demarco Middleton to be the most experienced player on the roster.
He’s had to learn to be more vocal. Instead of just being content with distributing the ball to scoring-minded playmakers, Middleton’s found himself having to be the scorer more times than not this season.
He’s averaging a team-high 15 points per game along with a 5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio which means his newfound scoring responsibilities haven’t diminished his ability to take care of the basketball and be a true floor general.
As for Ivery, his 11.1 points per game is several notches lower than the scoring output he was used to at Thomson. But Ivery’s also averaging four assists and five rebounds per game, while showing himself a vital defender and ball handler.
That latter asset has given Middleton something in a backcourt mate Hunter said he really hasn’t had before.
“Actually, in that Thomson game, when we brought Marco out, Ivory had to carry the team for a brief moment,” Hunter said. “But it gave Marco a rest. He’s never really had that luxury here. He’s always needed to be on the floor. But that rest allowed him to come back and finish that game so strong on offense as well as defense.”
Perhaps at one point, Ivery thought of himself as that 20-plus points-per-game scorer for whatever team he’d play with. But maturity and a win-at-all-costs mindset shifted that — not just for him, but for Westside’s entire team, including Middleton.
“We look at that game against Thomson, games like what we played with Butler, those close games and we use those to help our team gain that playoff atmosphere experience that many of our guys don’t have, which helps them learn what’s important in a game,” Hunter said. “Everybody wants to be that 20-point scorer. Like Marco. Early on he was trying to score too much. We had to break down film and show him where to pick his spots and where to distribute the ball more.
“People don’t cheer for assists, but scouts notice. And Marco’s been getting a few calls from schools now because of it.”
Only Middleton and Xavier Goss have any postseason starting lineup experience from the last two championship seasons. Of course, Ivery has playoff experience as well, but that came with Thomson, not Westside.
FITTING IN THE WESTSIDE WAY
In many ways, Ivery is still trying to find his fit — particularly offensively — with this Westside team. But Hunter says he’s seen signs of him peaking at the right time.
“It’s just a matter of time before he changes our offense,” Hunter said. Naturally, he hasn’t been here long so he’s still working his way in, in that regard. But once he gets going, he’s going to change the tune of our offense. He’s getting there. Shot selection is starting to change, and he’s handling the ball more which is helping us.”
Ivery’s not complaining about the process, either.
“My role here is like, Coach is gonna want me to score and get a lot of shots up,” Ivery said. “But he also wants me to rebound, play defense and get assists.”
Hunter also mentions guys like junior Jarious Adkinson and sophomores Javan Webb and Dontrell Jackson as long-on-talent-short-on-experience players who are starting to mature and come into their own as the season goes.
Westside’s postseason begins in earnest Thursday when it plays its first Region 4-AA tournament game at 5:30 p.m. at Josey. And while many are penciling in a Westside-Thomson rematch in the region title game. But there’s a strong chance the Patriots will first have to get past a Butler squad that’s beaten them twice already this season.
And for that reason, despite Westside’s No. 1 ranking and championship reputation, Hunter’s not quite ready to call this team a three-peat ready squad.
“Not yet,” he said. “We want to use this region tournament to gauge it. Rolling into the region tournament, we’re gonna have a lot of momentum. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve still got a whole lot of work to do. But I think we’ll have a good opportunity to make the state playoffs. And with this team here, I will say that whether it’s 1-2-3-4 seed, we play well on the road, so I feel good about our chances and what we can be.”
It’s the same sentiment Ivery has about this squad’s state championship readiness.
“I feel pretty confident about this team,” he said. “We’ve got a young team, but everybody listens on the court. We play together. We practice hard together, and our coaching is great. We feel we have what it takes.”
