Much like this week’s RBC Heritage Player of the Week nominees, the voters came out of the gates on fire to start the basketball season.
More than 900 votes were cast on the boys ballot and more than 500 on the girls ballot, and the voters wound up deciding one of our two winners.
The boys voting was intense, as May River’s Harry Cash made a late surge to garner 41.58 percent of the vote and edge Ridgeland-Hardeeville’s Devin Butler (37.2 percent) to win the fan vote. Butler also got one vote from our panel, but the other three votes went to Beaufort Academy’s Jaylen Reeves.
Reeves is a deserving winner, having averaged 27.5 points, 5.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.5 steals in two games to earn All-Tournament Team honors in the John Paul II Tip-Off Tournament. The Eagles went 1-1, with a 64-60 loss to eventual champion First Presbyterian Christian.
The girls voting was even more interesting, as our panel split its four votes between Ridgeland-Hardeeville’s Marlaysia Westbrook and JPII’s Tkai DeVore. That meant the fan vote was the deciding vote, and Westbrook (40.94 percent) took it home by a considerable margin over DeVore (25.98 percent).
The Jaguars played only one game last week, and Westbrook turned in an impressive performance, putting up 25 points, 13 rebounds, and two steals in a win over Whale Branch.
Congrats to Jaylen Reeves and Marlaysia Westbrook, the RBC Heritage Players of the Week, and thanks for voting!