How James Wright found his confidence, sparked Lenape boys basketball to South 4 final
MEDFORD – James Wright needed an assist.
The Lenape High School senior struggled with his shot through the first half of the basketball season and began losing confidence in himself.
His teammates tried to prop him up, and he had a one-on-one with head coach Matt Wolf to find ways to improve.
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But Wright wanted more.
So, he started going to LA Fitness at 5 a.m. to work with local trainer Julian Dunkley, a Cherry Hill West graduate that played Division-I hoops at Temple and Maine.
Those reps led to more comfort in games, and that’s shown in the scorebook the last three weeks.
Wright delivered his finest performance to date Saturday as he scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half as top-seeded Lenape held off No. 4 Eastern 56-48 in the South Jersey Group 4 semifinals.
The Medford squad will try for its second straight title when it hosts the winner of Egg Harbor Township-Cherry Hill East in the championship game on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
“It means everything,” Wright said. “Last year, I didn’t really play much, but I was on the bench and I got to experience it. Now, being able to be a part and play, it means a lot.”
There were times this winter Wright wondered how much of a role he’d wind up playing.
He made just seven 3-pointers in his first 20 games and averaged just under 5 points a contest.
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“We’ve been telling him all year you’re special, you just got to believe in yourself,” junior captain Tye Dorset said.
Wright began to after working with Dunkley, and felt his seven-point effort against Shawnee on Feb. 7 was the turning point of his campaign.
“I felt used to the system and I just knew I would have to step up,” he said.
Wright scored a career-high 13 points two games later, then upped it to 15 against Medford Tech on Feb. 13.
Then came his heroics down the stretch against Eastern. He gave his team a jolt when he buried a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the third period, giving his squad a 35-32 advantage, then ignited a 9-0 run with another triple with 3:15 remaining.
He tallied seven of his squad’s last 16 points as Lenape pulled away.
“I’m so proud of him,” Wolf said of Wright, who’s averaged 10.6 points over his last seven games. “I’m so happy for him because he worked his butt off to get a big moment like this.”
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Big changes from previous matchup
Eastern defeated Lenape 35-19 when the teams met on Feb. 2.
However, there were two major differences Saturday.
First, Lenape had Dorset back on the court. Dorset missed four and a half games late in the year with a knee injury, including that matchup with the Vikings.
He netted a game-high 17 points this time around.
“Tye is our leader on and off the court,” Wolf said. “… Having his confidence and his ability to pick other guys up on the court, even if it wasn’t his night, he still has that special ability to do that.”
Then there was Lenape’s shooting.
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It made just 1-of-22 3-pointers last matchup and was 8-for-48 from the field.
Lenape connected on 7-of-19 shots from beyond the arc in the semifinals.
Coach proud of Eastern’s season
The Vikings had multiple players leave the program prior to the season, including their leading scorer, Noah Payne.
Yet, that didn’t stop them from getting to the sectional semifinals.
“End of the season, you feel bad for your seniors, but real proud of this group of kids,” head coach Kevin Crawford said. “I think we overachieved as a group. It was a fun group to be around, really, really fun group of kids to be around. They all played really hard and did the best they could every single night.”
Damien Edwards had 15 points and Max Portnoy added 12 and 5 assists.
“It’s Group 4 basketball,” Crawford said. “You can win any night and lose any night. It was a battle.”
They said it
“People kind of wrote us off this year. I think we stayed together, stayed confident. We knew what we were capable of. We just had to put it together.”
– Lenape captain Tye Dorset on his team returning to the sectional final
Josh Friedman has produced award-winning South Jersey sports coverage for the Courier Post, The Daily Journal and the Burlington County Times for more than a decade. If you have or know of an interesting story to tell, reach out on Twitter at @JFriedman57 or via email at jfriedman2@gannettnj.com. You can also contact him at 856-486-2431. Help support local journalism with a subscription.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Lenape boys basketball tops Eastern to make South Jersey Group 4 final
