Giant Success: By reaching state tournament, Green Oaks ends 43-year drought
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
The joy and adoration of a community for its basketball team reached a new level during Green Oaks’ departure Wednesday for the state basketball tournament in Lake Charles.
For the first time in 43 years, the Giants received celebrity-style status where parents, supporters, and the student body gathered for the team’s sendoff amid sounds colliding from the school’s band and cheerleaders, creating such a euphoric moment.
“There’s been a lot of positivity and encouraging words,” Green Oaks coach Demetrius Wiggins said.
The basketball team has managed to pull the Green Oaks area of Shreveport together since the Giants’ 67-63 victory in last Friday’s state quarterfinal over Rayville.
Even the school’s favorite son – NFL cornerback Tre White of the Buffalo Bills – was in attendance for his alma mater’s quarterfinal win that earned the No. 11 Giants (17-14) a date in Thursday’s Division III non-select semifinal with No. 2 Madison (25-3) at 4:30 p.m. at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
“He’s a big supporter of the school and community,” Wiggins said of White, who starred at LSU. “That’s what he does. It was a big deal for the community.”
Green Oaks, which last advanced to the state tournament in 1983, needs to defeat Madison to reach Saturday’s state championship game at 6 p.m. against No. 1 Marksville, a 66-47 winner over No. 5 Mamou.
“I’m really happy from the community aspect,” said Wiggins, who has been at the school seven years, the last five as head coach. “It’s been a great way to see all of us come together, all of us be on the same page, all of us be unified. My happiness and satisfaction come from the tough-minded kids playing for me, and it’s coming from the unified community that’s supporting these tough-minded kids.”
Green Oaks is the next-to-highest seeded team remaining in the state tournament, trailing only No. 12 Northside, which advanced to the Division II select state title game on Saturday.
The Giants finished in a tie for third in District 1-2A and ended the regular season with three losses to Tioga (Class 4A), Natchitoches Central (Class 5A), and Mansfield (Class 2A). Two of the three games were decided by nine points or less to leave the team with a break-even 14-14 record.
“There was pain in those lessons,” Wiggins said. “These guys do not like losing. They don’t like coming up short when they know that they could have come out on the other side of the win-loss column. They believe in themselves, and they know what they can do. Even though our record was 14-14, you look at the 14 losses and pretty much all of them made the playoffs or went pretty far in the playoffs.”
Green Oaks endured nine losses by fewer than 10 points. They also dropped heartbreaking one-point games to David Thibodeaux and D’Arbonne Woods.
“Our guys are battle tested,” Wiggins said. “Our guys have seen a lot of different styles of basketball, and our guys are locked in to take their preparation very seriously.”
Part of the season’s groundwork included a pair of losses to district power Calvary Baptist – the No. 1-seeded team in Division III select – and a setback to Northside, which upset No. 1 Madison Prep on Wednesday.
Huntington, which reached the Division I select quarterfinals, took a 70-52 win over Green Oaks in the second game of the season.
The Giants experienced a season-high three-game winning streak on Dec. 15-19, defeating Southwood (64-45), and winning their first two games in Minden’s tournament. They knocked off Loyola Prep (66-46) and tournament host Minden (58-54) in double overtime before falling to Parkway (46-37).
Green Oaks was 9-9 after its first meeting with Calvary Baptist, the reigning Division III select state runner-up. They wound up 3-2 in district play and tied with North Caddo, trailing Calvary and D’Arbonne Woods.
“Our guys have become tough-minded, and that’s all I want,” Wiggins said. “I’ve told our staff and other people, every kid in our locker room is going to be a man of a house when they get older. There’s a certain mentality that you have to have to lead a house effectively.
“I want my guys to be leaders of families and leaders of men because you have to have a tough-minded mentality, you have to be able to push through adversity,” Wiggins said. “As long as they’re tough-minded that can handle adversity, which can trust family, everything will be fine later on in life.”
One of the expected areas of strength this season for Green Oaks was the experienced players returning after last year’s first-round playoff exit.
“Outside of two (non-starting) seniors, we had the same team coming back,” Wiggins said. “Four of five of our starters were back, and the core of the bench were all back.”
Green Oaks were able to parlay that experience into an opening-round playoff win over Many, 58-53 in overtime, to trigger its improbable run in the state tournament.
“It seemed like it was a big lock-in moment,” Wiggins said. “You could hear them say, ‘We can do this. Let’s get serious.’ That first-round win in overtime gave the guys confidence. To keep fighting and preparing and praying as a family and community.”
The Giants traveled to Coushatta and upset No. 6 Red River, 54-47, and were able to return home to host No. 14 Rayville, which had upset No. 3 Donaldsonville in the regional round.
Wiggins recalled a moment in the win over Red River that was a defining trait of his team, which trailed at halftime by three points (27-24) following a successful 3-pointer by the home team.
“I looked at them just to see their body language and how they were going to respond,” he said. “They showed no emotion. They followed the game plan. They followed the scout (report) and kept grinding out the game.”
That resulted in an unforeseen quarterfinal appearance before a packed gymnasium that helped push Green Oaks across the finish line.
Junior guard Joshua Tellis had a game-high 18 points, with senior forward Keshawn Williams and junior guard Javontaye Dean adding 11 and 10 points, respectively.
“That’s what I am as a person, that’s what I am as a coach,” Wiggins said. “I’m a guy that doesn’t like to quit until our jobs are done. I’m a guy that fights, and I keep fighting, and I keep working, and I keep grinding. A philosophy that I live by is that you can’t chop a tree down in one swing. It takes multiple swings to get that tree down.
“And my players have taken on the same characteristics; they’re fighters,” Wiggins said. “The guys do not quit, and they know there are only so many things that make me mad, and one of those things is quitting.”
Wiggins said the bond between coaches and players has gained strength during the team’s playoff run.
“It’s the buy-in, there’s been a trust from the players to the coaches,” he said. “We trust in each other, and we’re believing in each other. We believe in what we do, and we’re having our motivating factors that have kept us grinding. They’ve kept us going.”
Balance is the byword for Green Oaks’ offense, with three double-figure scorers and three other players ranging between 6 and 8 points.
“They’ve all worked hard and are super competitive,” Wiggins said of his lineup. “All of them bring something different to the table. All of them are leaders in their own way.”
Junior guard Quantavious Sanford tops the team with a 13-point average to go with a team-best eight rebounds. Tellis and Dean and Tellis at 11 and 10 points, respectively. Williams averages seven points, with senior forward Cyrus Wilson and Nichols each chipping in with six apiece.
“Larry’s more vocal, does a lot of the communication on the floor,” Wiggins said. “Keshawn is the anchor, our bulldog on the inside. He’s an X-factor that can shoot the ball, and that’s what he’s accepted as his role.
“Q, he’s our guy that makes us go. We depend on him, and he shows up,” Wiggins said of Sanford. “Dean is an explosive guy. He’ll be the one to make big plays, be the one to make freak-of-nature plays, and Joshua, you’ll see him play hard and find a way to put the ball in the hole. All of them have been playing for me together for at least two to four years.”
The outpouring of affection for the team has come from different directions, a variety of sources that have sent well-wishes, encouragement, and monetary donations.
“I tell people it’s preparation meets opportunity,” Wiggins said of his team’s postseason success. “Our guys are preparing. The coaches are preparing. The community is preparing. As long as we’re all preparing, and preparing the right way, and keeping God involved in the preparation, everything will be good.”