Check out a preview of the upcoming Portal Middle High School basketball season from GC Sports's Ke'Juan Humprhies. Go Panthers!
The Panther boys look to make history with a new cast
Last season was the end of an era for Portal boys basketball. The Panthers finished with a 28-2 record last season. The campaign ended with a loss in the Elite 8 to Warren County. The team is going to look vastly different this season, as none of the players that started against Warren County will be playing this season.
The four seniors, Amir Jackson, Joseph Thomas, Elijah Coleman, and Marion Tremble have all graduated, while David Thomas, sophomore, is expected to miss the season due to injury.
Head Coach Jeff Brannen will return as the head coach for the team this season. He cited a couple of players that will need to lead the charge of this year’s group.
“Brian McQueen and Zion Lanier are going to have to be leaders for this team,” Brannen said.
McQueen played significant minutes last season off of the bench for Portal. He also has a few starts under his belt. Lanier is a new face to the Panthers program entirely. He was a part of Statesboro High’s basketball team during his freshman and sophomore years, but did not play last season. McQueen and Lanier will look to be a dynamic backcourt for Portal this season.
Coming off of 4 straight region titles, Coach Brannen said that is still the goal for this season. “Also we have to improve everyday in practice and in games,” Brannen said.
Despite the heavy lifters for the last 4 years being gone, there are still plenty of returning players this season who have been a part of the winning culture that the Portals boys program has been known for. Coach Brannen looks at that to be a positive for this year’s team.
“The players before them have set the standards,” Brannen said. “We are going to be young and experienced. They have to learn from the mistakes and not let it affect them.”
With the youth on this year’s squad, the coaching staff is emphasizing the fundamentals including ball handling and rebounding.
Roster
- #2 Zeke Percell G Fr.
- #3 David Thomas G So.
- #4 Kobi Burroughs G Jr.
- #5 Zion Lanier G Sr.
- #10 Brian McQueen G Jr.
- #11 CJ Harden G Jr.
- #20 Samari McBride F Jr.
- #21 KJ Hunter F So.
- #22 Josh Coleman F So.
- #30 Ray Hagins C So.
The Lady Panthers look to build winning culture
The Portal Lady Panthers basketball team made a historic run last season. They made it to the sweet 16 and hosted the first round of the state playoffs for the first time in program history. Portal’s girls finished with a 12-16 record on the season, but that is mostly due to a tough non-region schedule. In region play, the Lady Panthers went 5-3 and made a run at the region title.
Portal is led by Head Coach Nicole Newton.
A couple of leaders for last year’s team graduated, including Glen Lowe, Tiara Kingsberry, and Raashonda Khalil. Coach Newton is calling on some of her returning players to help steer this team in the right direction.
“Angel Cone and Tameeyah Kingsberry are our captains and leaders of our team,” Newton said. “I expect both of them to contribute big time this season as both of them missed significant time last season due to injuries.”
The Lady Panthers closed last season off very strong and gave what could be a glimpse of what the future looks like.
“As good as last season was, we are still hungry,” Newton said. “We’ve had a small taste of what it was like to make a run in the state playoffs and we want to get back and surpass what we were able to accomplish last season.”
Roster
- #4 Tameeyah Kingsberry G Jr.
- #12 Kailyn King F Jr.
- #14 Angel Cone F Jr.
- #15 Serenity WIlliams G Sr.
- #20 London Blackmon G So.
- #24 Alycia Hagins F So.
- #44 Alyssa King F Jr.
- #55 Angela Jones C Jr.