Hometown Leopards are all about ‘Game Time’ for season 2021-2022
MALVERN — This season, the hometown Malvern Leopards have gotten a little early season taste of basketball competition on the hardwood against tough classification opponents.
Veteran Malvern head coach Jess Martin is back to guide the Leopard hoopsters and return to the big stage on the hardwood in the postseason.
Martin, who knows first hand what it takes to win the big one—with two backto-back state championships leading the Malvern Lady Leopards basketball program several years ago.
Now, stepping over to take over the boys program, Martin has captured a district tournament championship, but aims for more title hardware with several talented pieces returning to lead the Leopard ship through a challenging 4A-7 Conference season.
The Leopards are senior heavy strong—featuring Jacoby Lock, Kaleb Bright, Carter Martin, Jett Jones, Robert Grigsby, John Barnes, big men Jabri Artis and Tayshaun Traylor, DJ Culp, Charles Williams, and
Jesse Vik.
IT’S GAME TIME— LEOPARDS
In the Leopards season-opener against Sheridan in the Lakeside Classic, Lock dropped a productive 18 points and drilled three triples from beyond the arc to post in double-figures for a solid performance. Malvern’s Conner Lewis finished with six points coming in the second quarter. Francis added five points with one triple from beyond the arc in the first quarter. Bright and big man Traylor each contributed four points apiece and Culp added two points for the Leopards.
Despite a tough loss to Benton for Malvern’s second match-up in the classic, the hometown Leopards rebounded productively for an impressive season-home opener victory against Camden-fairview 57-48.
Lock led the Leopards with a productive 20 point performance along with Culp accompanying his teammate with 11 points for a duo of double-figures in Malvern’s first win of the season. Leopards’ big man Traylor finished with eight points, with the trio of Bright, Dyelon Caradine and Kealon Juniel each adding six points apiece.
These early season match-ups will help the Leopards going into this Friday’s conference season-opener
fierce and ready to contend for a huge rivalry showdown hosting rivals’ Nashville at the
Leopard Center.
Now with a full steady roster to welcome their standout hoopsters from football—[carter] Martin, [Jabri] Artis, [Dyelon] Caradine and [Kealon] Juniel to spark a Leopard team to do some impressive hardwood damage for the 2021-2022 basketball season.