ESCC excited for basketball season

Excitement is in the air as the Enterprise State Community College Boll Weevils and Lady Boll Weevils get ready for the 2021-2022 season to begin this week.

The Boll Weevils open up their home schedule this Thursday, Nov. 4, as Gordon State comes to Enterprise and then both the men and women will host Andrew College on Nov. 9.

The Boll Weevils come into 2021 boasting a much different – and much smaller – team than recent years as head coach Jeremaine Williams says he expects his team to be as fast as any team he’s had in the past few years.

“This year’s team is a lot different than our teams in the past,” Williams emphasized. “I tell people all the time that I don’t have a bunch of 6-9 guys this year. We don’t really have a post-up player, so we’re playing really fast.

“They play fast and they play gritty. We’ve changed a lot of things we do, we shoot a lot of threes and we’re going to press a lot and play fast.”

Williams said that his team connected on 15-of-22 three-point attempts at a recent scrimmage with Stillman College. Williams said his team proved they could play with some top junior college programs in a number of jamborees and scrimmages during the fall.

“This team is just grimy and they play together and I really enjoyed coaching these guys,” Williams said. “This is something that a coach wants. These are a bunch of kids that want to be here and they take pride in defense, too. This will probably be the fastest team I’ve had since our 2016 team that went 24-3. They remind me a lot of that team.”

The Boll Weevils also feature a big roster of Wiregrass talent this season, as well. Included in that group of local athletes is Slocomb’s Brydon Whitaker, Ariton’s Hayes Flloyd, Dothan’s James Pouncy Jr., New Brockton’s Dillon Kelty, Geneva County’s Colby Fuller, Brantley’s Westley Person, Abbeville’s Jaquan Kinsey and Barbour County’s Willie Screws.

Screws may be the headliner of this group as he was an all-state standout at Barbour County that started his college career at Shelton State. Kinsey also comes to ESCC after starting out playing college football.

“We have a lot of local guys on this team,” Williams said. “Dillon Kelty from New Brockton has been really improving this year. We’re excited about him. Kincey has been real explosive for us, too.”

Joining the Wiregrass locals on the Boll Weevil squad are Palm Beach, Fla. natives Emmanuel Ige and Celoui Louissaint along with Norfolk, VA’s Khalil Oden, North Carolina native Patrick Littlejohn, Georgia’s Shomaris Gaines, Atlanta, Ga. native Malik Wiggins and Escambia, Fla. native Tiquale Taylor. Carver-Montgomery’s Jalen Gaston has also joined the Boll Weevils.

Willimas refers to Louissaint – who was born in the Bahamas – and Littlejohn as “sharpshooters” for this fast-paced Boll Weevil squad.

“The play together as a unit and work hard together in the weight room,” Williams said. “A lot of these guys have put on 10-15 pounds of muscle since they got here.”

The Lady Boll Weevils will be anchored by a trio of Ponce de Leon (Fla.) grads that were the backbone of Ponce de Leon’s 2021 Class 1A State Championship team. Lilly Brooks, Jordan Sinclair and Michelle Neal all joined ESCC after winning the state championship. Ozark’s Jordyn Crews and Syisha Carson also join Geneva’s Jesslyn Culverhouse, Ariton’s Zaykeria Johnson and Abbeville’s Madison Grimsley as Wiregrass representatives on this year’s team. Also, Phenix City’s Erin Johnson, Graceville’s Brandi Watson, Lanett’s Alyse Madden and Gainesville, Fla.’s Nada Matthews come aboard. Dothan’s Alexis Hudgens has also transferred to ESCC from Alabama State.

“The women’s team is very aggressive,” Williams said. “The girls are really sharp this year. They play hard.”

Williams said that his Lady Boll Weevils battled with some of the top JUCO teams in the country during the fall, including defending national champions West Florida.

“I was proud of the girls for not backing down from them,” Williams said. “That showed me a lot. We really shot it well and were able to do a lot of things with the girls.”

This season, ESCC will feature some of the top JUCO teams in the Southeast traveling to Enterprise for the first time in many years, including teams like Chipola State (Fla.) and Shelton State.

“We have some top notch teams coming here to play this season,” Williams said. “Chipola State is coming here and Shelton State is coming here. It’s probably the first time in seven years the (Shelton State) girls have come here and they’re defending state champions.

“We need the community in here to hype us up for those games. We want to get those teams in here in the ‘Boll Weevil Den’ and put that pressure on them. We need everyone here to support our guys and girls and push us in those games.”

ESCC officially opened the 2021 half of the season on the road on Nov. 1 with the Boll Weevils falling to Andrew College 82-71 and the Lady Weevils dropping their game to Andrew College 79-57.

Culverhouse led the Lady Weevils with 11 points and Williams pointed to missed opportunities as being a key in the loss.

“We just had an off night shooting and we missed a ton of layups,” Williams said. “We missed stuff we shouldn’t be missing. We probably missed 15-20 layups and we also missed a lot of free throws.

“We were 12-of-21 at the line and as much as we practice free throws we should have shot better. We forced turnovers like we wanted to but just missed our opportunities in transition and that hurt us tonight. I think it was some first game jitters but we’ll turn around and keep working and go back to the drawing board.”

Gaston led the Boll Weevils with 21 points in their game, while Kinsey chipped in with 14 points and Littlejohn scored 10 points. Williams pointed to the lack of rebounding in the loss.

“We struggled rebounding, especially in the first half, and we shot 17-for-29 at the free throw line,” Williams said. “Those points we left off the board were big and Andrew College took advantage of their 7-footer under the rim.

“We’ll have them again next week at our place and we’re going to keep working hard. We have to make better decisions with our shot selection, we took some bad shots. We’ll bounce back, though, and we’ll get ready for Thursday.”

The Boll Weevils host Gordon State at 5 p.m. on Nov. 4 and both the Boll Weevils and Lady Weevils will host Andrew College on Nov. 9 with the women playing at 5 p.m. and men playing at 6 p.m.