Published: November 07, 2009 12:02 am      

Garrett plays Hargrave in Rockingham opener

MCHENRY — The Garrett Lakers men’s basketball team opens its season today in Rockingham, N.C., against one of the premier post-grad schools in the country, Hargrave Military Academy.

Tipoff is 5 o’clock, with the winner facing the Rockingham-North Carolina Prep winner in Sunday’s championship game.

Lakers head coach Dennis Gibson is unsure how his inexperienced team will do, but is looking forward to the opportunity.

“We have played at Rockingham before and it is a nice environment. I also wanted our local kids to have a chance to go somewhere outside of Region XX and play some games as an experience,” he said. “I was not expecting to play a prep school but I did not have control over that. It should be a reality check for these guys and we will find what we need to work on as a team and individuals.”

The Lakers return four players but only one with any real experience as a starter in Shawn Greenfield, an 2008-09 preseason All-American who elected to redshirt to increase his Division I recruitment. He averaged 15 points per game as a freshman and was an All-Region XX selection.

Other returnees include Doma Ibrahim, Marko Agbaba and Howard Ferguson, all of which saw limited play last season. The Lakers do have a solid nucleus of players that redshirted last season and will be able to help immediately: Joe Dubuche, a long-range shooting guard; Chris Hilliard, a 6-4 athletic forward; and local products Jeff Stem (Southern) and Kory Gibson (Northern), two of the area’s top high school scorers.

“We tried to use a football-type mentality in redshirting these guys so that they could concentrate on getting stronger and maturing for this season,’’ said Gibson. “We also had a strong sophomore group last year and a redshirt season benefitted everyone.”

True freshmen include Dominique Goodwin, Mario Lloyde, Jordan Gipson and Vladimir Vukovic and Ismail Washington, who will be expected to contribute this season.

The Lakers will make their home debut in the Railey Realty Tournament Nov. 14-15.