Carter kept focus on return trip to state finals

By COSMO COSSEY

Sports Connection Team

Marked Tree's Ken Carter said he was looking forward to the Indians second straight trip to the Class 1A basketball state championship game.

“This year's team is way more focused than last year and everybody on this year’s team has accepted their role on the team,” Carter said. After coming up short losing on a shot at the buzzer, Carter said the team really wanted this title this year. “Me and the team want it really bad from when off-season started to summer camps and all. Everybody has been focused and playing hard to get back to the championship game and shock everybody,” Carter said.

“It would mean a lot to my team and myself to win a state championship, we put in the hard work for this game day in and day out,” Carter added. The Indians can put the points on the board quickly but Carter thinks the team is better on the defensive side of the ball. “In my eyes I think the team is better on defense because of how much work and time we put into defense and if you know Coach Wilburn, you know if you don’t play defense you not getting on her floor,” Carter said.

“I think it was hard getting to the championship last year because the way the state tournament was set up. The second round we play the New School, which was second in the state at the time. Then in the semis we played Brinkley which was like fourth in the state. We then faced County Line in the championship game which was the number one team in the state at the time. That was a really hard lineup of teams to get through,” Carter said.