Clark got season he expected in first year as Manning boys head coach
Monarchs finish year with 15-12 record
Manning – A loss of three senior starters, including one who averaged over 25 points a game and another who averaged almost five blocked shots a game, from a team that went 20-6 and won a region title along with a new head coach normally leads to one thing: inconsistency.
And that’s exactly what the Manning High School boys basketball team was all season: inconsistent. The Monarchs would have their good moments followed by bad moments, sometimes coming within the same game.
The result was a 15-12 overall record and a 3-5 finish in Region 7-AAA. That was enough to get the Monarchs into the playoffs where they lost to North Charleston 76-48 in the first round.
“It went pretty much they way I predicted it would be,” said Manning head coach Patrick Clark, who was hired to replace Lamont Britt, who left for Swansea after one season. “We were a young squad for the most part with one varsity starter returning. And the rest of our players didn't have a whole lot of varsity playing experience.
“It was a rebuilding year, for sure,” Clark added. “I thought our players handled it all pretty well, the bumps and bruises, the ups and downs.”
Junior guard Jeffrey Ceasar was the one retuning starter, and he had an outstanding season. Ceasar easily led the team in scoring with a 17.6 per-game average. He also had a solid floor game over the course of the season with 3.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 3.1 steals.
Tavion Carter, a 6-foot-4-inch junior, had more than his share of moments where he could be a presence around the basket. Along with averaging 10.3 points, Carter averaged a double-double as he led the Monarchs in rebounding at 12.6. He also averaged 2.4 blocked shots.
Another key performer for Manning throughout the season was freshman Lovell Stevenson. He averaged 7.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.7 steals.
Those three were pretty much in the starting lineup throughout most of the season. Because of the inconsistencies, Clark was still trying to put the right pieces together late in the season.
“I made some changes to what we were doing late in the season,” Clark said. “I feel like we’ll have at least a good 8-man rotation coming back that has some strong freshmen.
“All in all, I feel like a great foundation to going to be built. We’re wanting to build chemistry, and get everybody on the same page.”
Sophomore Jordan Heyward was consistently joining Ceasar, Stevenson and Carter in the starting lineup down the stretch. Joining them in the rotation were junior Peyton Frierson, junior Kennedy Bennett, junior Tyler Green, freshman CJ Robinson and Stevenson’s little brother but fellow freshman, Lovon Stevenson.
While the Monarchs averaged a more-than-respectable 56.9 points per game, they allowed 54.4. Clark said his program has to make drastic improvements on the defensive end of the floor.
"We've got to focus on showing up consistently on the defensive end,” Clark said. “We’ve got to establish ourselves defensively early in the game and eliminate turnovers.”
Manning will not only be part of a new region in the 2024-25 school year, but it will be part of a new classification. For the second time in school history, Manning will be competing at the AA level.
Manning will be a part of Region 7-AA. The other schools in the region will be fellow Clarendon County School District school East Clarendon, which is coming up from Class A, Kingstree, Lake City, Marion, Mullins and Atlantic Collegiate, which is located in Myrtle Beach.
“I think where are and what we have to pull from, this benefits us to some degree,” Clark said. “This region might have more balance. I think we'll be able to compete better. than where we’ve been just because of the demographics and makeup. But this still won’t be an easy region by any stretch.”
MANNING GIRLS FINISH WITH 2-22 RECORD
Lady Monarchs head coach Verner Hilton knew her basketball team wouldn’t have an easy go of it in 2023-24 because of its youth and inexperience. It turns out she was correct as Manning finished the year with a 2-22 record.
Manning lost pretty much most of its scoring from a team that went 15-11 and reached the state playoffs. The Lady Monarchs lost all five starters from the team. Three of them were to graduation while another transferred.
There was supposed to be one returning starter in senior Parah Anderson. However, Anderson, who averaged 6.6 points last season, tore an anterior cruciate ligament prior to the start of the season and was lost for the year.
Both of the Lady Monarchs’ victories did come in region play. They finished 2-8 with both of the wins coming over Georgetown. Manning beat the Bulldogs 38-26 in the first meeting and 57-39 in the second contest.
Manning had a few opportunities to make the record a little bit better. The Lady Monarchs had three losses that came by less than 10 points.
Manning averaged just 29.1 points per game as a team while allowing a 53.1 average.
Freshman Taniyah Johnson led the Lady Monarchs in scoring with a 7.8 average to go with 5.3 rebounds. Junior Tahirah Wellington was the leading rebounder at 7.4 while averaging 3.2 blocked shots to go with a 6.0 scoring average.
Freshman Aysia Moore averaged 5.9 points and 2.6 rebounds, while sophomore Tamia Watson averaged 4.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.5 steals. Senior Lanyah Pearson averaged 1.2 points and 3.3 rebounds.
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