BOYS BASKETBALL: Hefner, Clover earn 21-5A player of year awards

Published 1:21 pm Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Two players and a coach from Memorial won superlative awards in the All-District 21-5A honors released Tuesday, as did Nederland junior Hayden Hefner.

Hefner was named offensive player of the year after winning MVP awards in the Nederland/YMBL Classic and the Hardin-Jefferson Basketball Marathon this season. Hefner averaged 22 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game while shooting 54 percent from the floor and 71.4 percent in free throws.

Clover, the junior Memorial center, earned the defensive player of the year accolade. He blocked 3 shots per game, to go with 12 points and 8 rebounds.

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Also from Memorial, freshman Amaree Abram was named newcomer of the year. Memorial’s Alden Lewis and Barbers Hill’s Chris Pennington shared the coach of the year honor in 21-5A. Their teams tied for the district championship, with Barbers Hill earning the No. 1 seed following a tiebreaker. Memorial went the furthest out of the district in the 5A playoffs, finishing in the Region III semifinals, while Barbers Hill reached the second round.

Barbers Hill guard Max Armer was named the district’s MVP. Armer reached the 1,000-point plateau early in the season.

First-team all-district players include: Kenneth Lofton Jr. and Steven Wilson of Memorial; Kyler Duhon, Caleb Durham and Josh Guidry of Barbers Hill; Cedric Pete of Nederland; Tracy Smith and Trent Lee of PNG; Gavin Jarrell of Vidor; and Chance Brown of Cleveland.

Second-team players are: Jaden Conner, Kenneth Washington and Armand Callihan of Memorial; Isaiah Lawson of Barbers Hill; Tyler Jackson and Joseph Gipson of Nederland; Drake Rojas of PNG; T.J. Waller of Cleveland; Gage Galloway of Vidor and Noah Santos of Dayton.

Colton Mitchell of Memorial was named honorable mention.

— I.C. Murrell

About I.C. Murrell

I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

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