West Carteret’s Dylan McBride drives to the basket at the East Coast Invitational Team Camp. (J.J. Smith photo)
West Carteret’s Jaxon Whitaker fights for position after a free throw at the East Coast Invitational Team Camp. (J.J. Smith photo)
West Carteret coach Mark Mansfield looks on as his team competes in the East Coast Invitational Team Camp. (J.J. Smith photo)
West Carteret’s Xavier Jones goes up for a layup at the East Coast Invitational Team Camp. (J.J. Smith photo)
West Carteret’s Jaylen Hewitt goes up for a layup at the East Coast Invitational Team Camp. (J.J. Smith photo)
JACKSONVILLE — If a couple of summer basketball tournaments are any indication, West Carteret may be looking at another successful season this winter.
The Patriots went 5-1 at the Fred Lynch Invitational in Wilmington and broke even at 4-4 at the East Coast Invitational Team Camp in Jacksonville despite missing three key players for all but one game.
“I got a little spoiled to start with, going 3-1 to start at Jacksonville,” West coach Mark Mansfield said. “I said when I went down to Jacksonville if we went 4-4 with our limited personnel, I was going to be extremely happy. And we ended up going 4-4, so I have to remind myself that I’m supposed to be extremely happy.”
West was missing the services of Adam Cummings, Worth Stack and Davis Starling, who were on a school trip to Europe.
The Patriots played eight games in three days, meaning depth was of the utmost importance.
“You definitely have an advantage when you carry more guys,” Mansfield said. “In the past couple of years, we’ve had 10 to 12 guys go, but this year, we had seven to eight players for the majority of it. In the latter part of the tournament, we started to run out of gas.”
Mansfield’s squad earned a 77-45 victory over Wallace-Rose Hill, a 56-55 win over New Bern, a 41-35 triumph over East Chapel Hill and beat Ashley when the Wilmington school forfeited the game after a player suffered a significant injury in the third quarter.
The Patriots fell 62-47 to Pine Forest, 102-71 to Millbrook, 71-58 to Cox Mill, and 66-52 to Landstown (Va.).
“I feel pretty confident after our performance,” Mansfield said. “Our losses came to a 6A team, two 4A teams, and a powerhouse 3A team. And we beat the others with three potential starters missing.”
Stack was the second-leading scorer and Cummings the third-leading scorer at the Fred Lynch Invitational two weeks earlier when West took wins over West Brunswick, North Brunswick, Hoggard and Ashley and split games versus travel all-star teams.
Over the past four years, the Patriots have gone 77-19 overall with back-to-back trips to the 3A regional final and put up a 35-5 mark in league action to win four consecutive conference championships for the first time in school history.
They have, however, lost four of their top five scorers from last year’s team that set a school record for wins in a season at 26-5.
“We don’t want to get cocky,” Mansfield said. “Not having some of the guys we’ve lost going forward, there are a lot of teams who probably have payback in mind after the last couple of years. We will be getting teams’ best performance every night. We will have to take care of business.”
Dylan McBride is the lone player returning among the top five in scoring. He shined in both tournaments, leading the team in points. He hit at least 20 points on four occasions at the ECI.
Jaxon Whitaker scored a career-high eight points twice in his junior season but then averaged 9.0 points in Jacksonville and hit 17 apiece against Cox Mill and Millbrook.
Xavier Jones scored 10 points three times, and Cason Collins went for at least 11 points on three occasions.
“There were a lot of bright spots,” Mansfield said. “Cason and Xavier stepped it up with those other guys not being there. I was pleasantly surprised with how all the guys stepped up.”
Sophomore Jaylen Hewitt opened some eyes after a season on the junior varsity, averaging 9.8 points and 6.1 rebounds at the ECI. He scored at least 13 points in three games.
“He was a big surprise,” Mansfield said. “I knew he was going to be good and be able to help us, but he’s going to be able to help us more than I thought.”
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