Toast of the Coast: Hurston leads St. James basketball to best season yet
Even before the start of the season, St. James’ Jackson Hurston had a feeling his coaches would give him the opportunity to shine.
Hurston established himself as one of the top point producers on the Grand Strand after a handful of games. While that never wavered, road trips late in the year let him know opponents respected his abilities, too.
Take the team’s season-ending loss at Darlington, for instance. It was there that the Falcons’ student section found a less-than-flattering photo of Hurston on Instagram, blew it up several times over and used it to try to get into his head.
The Sharks ultimately lost, but not before The Sun News’ Toast of the Coast Boys Basketball Player of the Year put up another 20-point game and aided in a memorable second-half comeback.
“I take it as a good thing. I loved it,” Hurston said of the photo and what it meant. “I embrace it. I like to have fun with it.”
That’s easier to understand when thinking of why that student section or others were paying attention to him in the first place. After all, fans rarely notice the player dropping three or four points per game.
Hurston garnered that respect.
Over the course of the season, the 5-foot-7 backcourt standout averaged 18.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He was held to single digits just twice in 24 games, but he also recorded two 30-point games. Both his point and assist totals finished second among area players.
It was every bit of a breakout season after he missed a significant chunk of his junior year with what was later discovered to be a meniscus tear in his left knee.
Coach Monty Carr kept an eye on Hurston, making sure he wasn’t showing lingering signs of the injury. What Carr witnessed was the opposite, and the results quickly followed.
“I foresaw that he could do that maybe going into his senior year. But for him to have the type of season he had as a junior was a pleasant surprise,” Carr said. “I knew he had it in him. For him to have it [this year] speaks to his work ethic and his character.”
As Hurston progressed, so too did the team as a whole. The squad that won only seven games in 2013-2014 surpassed that prior to the start of region play. It eventually finished second in Region VII-AAA – earning the first home playoff game in school history – and went on to win a pair of postseason games after entering the year with just one since St. James opened in 2003.
With 18 total victories, St. James was the last Myrtle Beach-area boys team playing this year.
It’s a picture the team welcomed, even more than the one that elicited a few chuckles in Darlington.
“We talk all the time about how good of a year we had,” Hurston said. “That’s what makes us happy at the end of the day.”
The team
Player of the Year
Jackson Hurston
School | St. James
Class | Junior
Position | Guard
Noteworthy | Class AAA All-State selection and Region VII-AAA first-teamer averaged 18.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Led the Sharks to the third round of the state playoffs in what is considered the best season in school history.
Zeke Beckman
School | Loris
Class | Senior
Position | Guard
Noteworthy | Class AA All-State selection and runner-up for Region VIII-AA Player of the Year honors averaged 15.4 points per game and 17 points per game against region opponents.
Jalen Hennigan
School | Conway
Class | Senior
Position | Guard
Noteworthy | Helped Tigers earn a playoff berth and earned a spot on the All-Region VI-AAAA team after averaging 15 points, two steals and two assists per game.
Christian Jeffords
School | Conway
Class | Senior
Position | Guard
Noteworthy | Class AAAA All-State selection and Region VI-AAAA Player of the Year was also named to the North-South All-Star roster after averaging 15.4 points and two assists per game.
Duane Moss
School | Carolina Forest
Class | Sophomore
Position | Forward
Noteworthy | Myrtle Beach area’s leading scoring averaged 19.5 points per game while also grabbing 7.5 rebounds per contest.
Arkel Williams
School | Carvers Bay
Class | Junior
Position | Forward
Noteworthy | Class A All-State selection and Region VIII-A Player of the Year led Bears to a second-place region finish after averaging just shy of 19 points and 10 rebound per game.
Coach of the Year
Monty Carr
School | St. James
Noteworthy | Carr took the Sharks from a seven-win season in 2013-2014 to a second-place Region VII-AAA finish and a trip to the third round of the state playoffs. The team’s two postseason victories this season were more than it had in its first 11 seasons combined.
This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Toast of the Coast: Hurston leads St. James basketball to best season yet."