Wylie seniors, from left, Noah Mallory, Tosin Aiyejuto, TJ Leonard, Tommy Johnson and Isaiah Shurn are attempting to help lead the Pirates to a third consecutive District 9-6A title. Submitted photo.
By David Wolman
As the Wylie boys’ basketball team seeks a third consecutive District 9-6A championship, head coach Stephen Pearce commended his Pirates on how they made it through the first half of the season with a winning record despite not having their leading scorer, reigning district MVP and senior Noah Mallory, available as he recovered from a torn meniscus.
Mallory’s injury and all, Pearce viewed it as an opportunity to learn more about his roster. And he was pleased with what he saw. Mallory’s injury opened the door for the team’s four other starters, those who were further down the depth chart and on Wylie’s junior varsity team to earn valuable playing time.
Pearce quickly found out that he had a lot of depth to work with.
Players such as juniors Camden Love, Chase Hughes, Kayima Ikegbunam and Theo Allen received significant playing time. Love started several games in place of Mallory. Freshman Tre Pierce, who is currently on Wylie’s junior varsity team, played 15 games for the Pirates’ varsity team.
“They bring great defensive energy,” senior point guard TJ Leonard said of Love and Hughes. “They’ll come in and bring us great energy and that’ll help us on both ends of the court.”
Senior Isaiah Shurn provided the biggest individual impact for the Pirates during Mallory’s absence. Shurn, an all-6A honorable mention team honoree last year, was the team’s leading scorer over the first 19 games. Shurn is averaging 14 points per game this season, up from six points per game last season.
“This year, I would say that my confidence got higher,” Shurn said. “Whenever Noah got injured, I stepped up. I worked a lot on my shots. I really want to be first team all-district this year.”
Shurn, Leonard and Mallory comprise a starting lineup for the Pirates, along with Tommy Johnson and Tosin Aiyejuto, that has all seniors – the first time that Wylie has had all 12th graders starting for Wylie since Pearce took over as the team’s head coach in 2014. Overall, the Pirates are an older group, with five seniors and eight juniors filling out the roster.
“The seniors get the tone set at the start out of that group,” Pearce said. “We’ve got leading scorers, top defenders out of that group. And we have some juniors that come in who are good role players.”
Pearce is excited to have Leonard back with the program after Leonard helped to lead Kingdom Collegiate Academy (DeSoto) to the TAPPS Division I state title last year in his lone season with the program.
“It was a wild experience, but at the end of season, we won state,” Leonard said. “We were overpowering. No one could really hang with us.”
Pearce praised the versatility that the team has with Aiyejuto. Aiyejuto played 10 games as a sophomore, was moved to junior varsity and is now flourishing as an all-around player for Wylie.
“He’s a big piece for us,” Pearce said. “He was an all-district player for us last year. He can guard anybody on the court, from their point guard to their big man. We don’t have a lot of size this year. He knows how we do things and what we expect.”
Johnson, meanwhile, has taken on an increased scoring role after getting limited playing time last season.
“He’s been really good,” Pearce said. “Last year, he came off the bench and got some limited time. This year, he has more of a scoring role, is a defensive presence, and he can give us a lot on the court.”
Wylie was 3-0 in district play without Mallory, winning all three games by at least 15 points, including a 75-45 rout of South Garland on Dec. 6. And when Mallory made his season debut on Dec. 17, he provided the Pirates with even more firepower. That night, Mallory poured in 14 points in 20 minutes of playing time in a 61-32 win for Wylie over Garland. He is averaging a team-high 17 points per game.
“There wasn’t any drop-off when I came back for my first practice,” Mallory said. “It’s been pretty good. The chemistry is pretty good.”
Wylie has had a couple of stumbling blocks along the way this season. Pearce was eager to see how his team would respond after losing against Sachse 64-59 on Jan. 11 and 56-45 to Naaman Forest a week later. Since that loss to the Rangers, the Pirates have won their last three games and are now 11-2 in 9-6A.
“We’ve got a resilient group,” Pearce said. “We’ve got all juniors and seniors on this team. When you’ve got an older and more mature group, they can handle all of that stuff and bounce back. It’s been good.”
With the leadership and experience that Wylie has, Pearce believes that the Pirates, like the 2020 team that made a late season run to win a state championship, are just as capable.
“That team was really under the radar,” he said. “We are under the radar this year. I just saw area rankings, and we weren’t ranked. At the time in 2020, we made a late run and started playing well together. I think this team has the opportunity to do that.”
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