Toast of the Coast: Green proves unstoppable in leading Carvers Bay girls basketball to new heights
Issiah Tucker’s initial thoughts about his top player this winter make you believe he lost it.
Desaree Green averaged a double-double and led Carvers Bay to the Class A Lower State finals for the first time in school history. Yet, the coach’s first words aren’t complimentary. Tucker claims his senior forward had only two really good games all season, a one-point loss at Summerville and a home win over Latta during region play.
She could have done so much more, he says.
Tucker keeps talking, and then it all starts to make much more sense.
“She’s just so much better than everybody,” he said. “She can out-run anybody on the team. She can out-jump anybody on the team. She’s just raw. … I ain’t seen nobody we played all year – and we played three AAAA schools – I ain’t seen anybody who could touch her.”
Green, The Sun News Toast of the Coast Girls Basketball Player of the Year, proved herself throughout the season. She was the centerpiece of the Bears’ first region title, one that came over the likes of three other teams that were ranked in the state coaches poll for most of the year.
She led the Myrtle Beach area in scoring at a clip of 17.3 points per game. Green was also fifth locally in rebounding (10.4 per game) while adding 3.7 blocks.
But it wasn’t what she did that provided her proudest moments of a highlight-filled career. The three-time Toast of the Coast honoree said doubling up on rival Hemingway, winning the Region VIII-A crown and making that playoff run were more important than scoring more than 1,000 points in her career.
“None of us will be able to forget this,” she said. “We got close. We can remember that we have something to share with each other.”
The team’s success, though, had so much to do with Green, and that came with every opponent doing what they could to slow her down.
She was double-teamed down low, and opposing players frequently attacked her when she was on defense in an effort to get her into foul trouble. More often than not, the approach failed.
“Even if they did, I was going to try to play hard and fight,” Green said. “I don’t like losing.”
Tucker never shied away from the attention his star was getting.
In fact, he played right into it. That’s because of the results he got when he did. Carvers Bay won 18 games in each of Green’s last two seasons, the top two marks for the program.
Asked why that was able to happen, and Tucker sounds anything but crazy.
“No way we could have done the things we did without her,” Tucker said. “She was the focal point on defense, the focal point on offense.”
The team
Player of the Year
Desaree Green
School | Carvers Bay
Class | Senior
Position | Forward
Noteworthy | Area’s leading scorer finishing the year averaging more than 17 points a game. Also contributed 10.4 boards and 3.7 blocks in leading the Bears to their deepest playoff run in school history.
Kelsi Bachmann
School | St. James
Class | Junior
Position | Guard
Noteworthy | First-team All-Region VII-AAA selection averaged 11.1 points, 4.7 assists, five rebounds and five steals per game in leading Sharks to the second round of the playoffs.
Kira Bell
School | Socastee
Class | Sophomore
Position | Guard
Noteworthy | Do-it-all guard averaged 13.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game and tallied 13 double-doubles and one triple-double; named to All-Region VI-AAAA team.
Kiana Adderton
School | Myrtle Beach
Class | Sophomore
Position | Forward
Noteworthy | Class AAA All-State selection helped Seahawks to a Region VII-AAA title and the third round of the playoffs by averaging 12.2 points and eight rebounds per game.
Aquera Johnson
School | North Myrtle Beach
Class | Sophomore
Position | Forward
Noteworthy | Two-time Toast of the Coast honoree averaged a double-double (15 ppg, 11.2 rpg) and was named first-team All-Region VII-AAA and made two all-tournament squads.
Alexis Tomlin
School | Carolina Forest
Class | Freshman
Position | Forward
Noteworthy | After returning to the court from a year off, put up roughly one-third of her team’s scoring by averaging 12.9 points. Added 13 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game.
Coach of the Year
Ginger Ford
School | Socastee
Noteworthy | Despite a move up to Class AAAA and a lineup of just six players throughout region play, Ford led Socastee to a third-place finish in Region VI – behind only ranked programs Sumter and West Florence – and to the state playoffs.
This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Toast of the Coast: Green proves unstoppable in leading Carvers Bay girls basketball to new heights."