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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — It was a roller-coaster week for both the boys and girls basketball teams at West Forsyth.  

Both teams lost the Friday before last at Mount Tabor in Central Piedmont 4-A play, and both teams had three days to think about the loss before traveling to Davie County Tuesday night. 

Tuesday didn’t turn out well. The Davie County boys and girls upended West Forsyth, but Friday turned out much better. Both the West Forsyth boys and girls teams defeated Parkland. 

In the boys game at Davie, Davie was undefeated and edged West Forsyth 78-71.  

“I thought we was ready, but playing on the road in conference is tough,” Coach Marlon Brim of West Forsyth said. “But I thought we had good practices all week leading up the Davie game. So, I was excited and confident that we would be ready for the Davie game.” 

Davie improved to 16-0 and 6-0 after the game, and West Forsyth fell to 13-4 and 5-2. 

“I didn’t think we played well for four quarters,” Brim said. “We played well in spurts. But I thought overall we didn’t play West Forsyth basketball. And I give credit to Davie. They were truly ready in the moment, so they get the credit.” 

Jacari Brim, Marlon Brim’s son, led the Titans with 19 points Tuesday at Davie. Anthony Jordan added 18 points and Jordan Tate chipped in with 10.  

“We could’ve used a guy that normally steps up to play well, but at the end of the day we didn’t get a couple of rebounds that we needed,” Marlon Brim said. “And then they got timely baskets when we was making a run. So, at the end of the day we told guys that they all needed to step up, but Davie made the plays at the right time to win.” 

Marlon Brim said he would ideally like to play 10 players in any given game, but it depends on the game. 

“That’s usually how our depth works,” he said. “And we just go with it. That’s how we’ve playing all year, so we’ve been playing 10 guys all year.” 

The rivalry between West Forsyth and Davie County is one of the bigger ones in this area, but the rivalry has an added boost this season because both teams are faring well.  

“It was packed,” Marlon Brim said. “You had people standing on both ends of the gym, but I thought overall it was a great atmosphere. Both student sections was live, so I think overall you can’t ask for a better high school game than that.” 

The West Forsyth boys had two days to prepare to play at Parkland this past Friday. 

“I thought we rebounded well,” Marlon Brim said. “…But still all that we had with exams, players didn’t have to come, so…” 

According to Marlon Brim, Thursday’s practice to prepare for Parkland went well. 

“I could tell we was a little more locked in on Friday,” he said. “But like I told them, going into Parkland was going to be tough. That was going to be the (day) they celebrated the 25th (anniversary of winning the state championship at Parkland). So, I was part of that, so that was a big thing, too.”: 

Brim was an assistant coach on that state-championship team at Parkland. The head coach at Parkland was Mike Pennington, who is now the athletic director at West Forsyth. 

“It was great. It was great seeing the guys,” Marlon Brim said. “It was really done nicely. Parkland did a great, first-class job with hosting the players and everybody that showed up to come back to celebrate.” 

It also turned out well for the West Forsyth boy after a two-game losing streak. West Forsyth defeated Parkland 94-78.  

Mike Siedlecki led the Titans, who had six players score in double figures, with 23 points, Jacari Brim had 17 points, Brayden Adams contributed 15, Jones had 12, Cam White scored 11, and Tate chipped in with 10. 

The Titans improved to 13-4 and 6-2, and the Mustangs fell to 9-9 and 2-6. 

“I thought we played well Friday in the first half,” Marlon Brim said. “I thought we did some good things Friday. I thought we played to the way we usually play. Our defense was really good. We shot the ball pretty well. And we caused some turnovers, so I thought overall Friday we played well.” 

West Forsyth will continue as road warriors this week with conference games at Glenn on Tuesday and at Reagan on Friday.  

West Forsyth defeated Glenn 48-46 in the first meeting in Clemmons, and it defeated Reagan, also in Clemmons, 63-56.  

“It is what it is,” Marlon Brim said. “We’ll just do our best with it.” 

Also, with three weeks and six games left in the regular season, the conference is full of parity.  

Davie County, which lost to East Forsyth after defeating West Forsyth, and Mount Tabor are tied atop the conference at 7-1. West Forsyth is in third at 6-2, East Forsyth is 5-3, Reagan is 3-5, Parkland and Reynolds are both 2-6, and Glenn is 0-8.  

“Going in for a road game you can never judge a book by its cover,” Marlon Brim said. “Everybody gets up for everybody in the conference.” 

The West Forsyth girls also had the difficult task of having to rebound from the Mount Tabor loss on Jan. 19 as it prepared to play at Davie this past Tuesday. 

Not only that, the girls had a three-game losing streak before the Davie game. 

Davie outscored West Forsyth 15-9 in the third quarter to help it defeat West Forsyth 53-47, pushing the West Forsyth losing streak to four games.  

Malayka Rankin led the War Eagles with 18 points. Alexis Waters led the Titans with 17 points, according to the Davie County book, and Brooklyn King had 10.  

West Forsyth prepared to play at Parkland this past Friday and things turned out much better, winning 44-37.  

It’s the third time West Forsyth has defeated Parkland this season. West Forsyth won 50-48 in November in the Mary Garber Holiday Tipoff Classic, and West Forsyth won 43-39 on Dec. 15 in Clemmons.  

The Titans improved to 9-7 overall and 4-4 in the Central Piedmont 4-A. 

The Titans led the Mustangs 12-5 after the first quarter and 19-13 at halftime. The Titans outscored the Mustangs 12-7 in the third quarter to pull away.  

The West Forsyth girls also have to travel to Glenn and Reagan this week.  

Mount Tabor leads the Central Piedmont 4-A at 13-5 overall and 7-1 in the conference. Reynolds, which lost to Mount Tabor this Friday, is 6-2. Davie County is third at 11-7 overall and 5-3 in the conference, followed with a three-way tie for fourth at 4-4 between West Forsyth, Parkland and Reagan. East Forsyth is seventh at 2-6 and Glenn is last at 0-8.