Dorman boys basketball survive battle, continue path to 6th straight title game appearance

ROEBUCK — The Dorman boys basketball team has been to five straight state championship games, winning four of them, it has won 11 region titles in 15 years, and again it's considered one of the best teams in the state. Yet, as the Cavaliers advance to the quarterfinals of the 2022 playoffs, all they're thinking about is what's right in front of them.

"Our motto this season is always to focus on the next play," said Dorman senior center and University of Alabama commit Noah Clowney. "You can't get down yourself. At the beginning of the season, I feel like that costs us a lot of games. We can't get down on ourselves. We have to keep that mentality of the next play."

That was the case in the second round when they went into the half down by four points against a physical Northwestern team that had the size and athleticism to give the Cavaliers trouble.

But on the backs of their seniors, Dorman was able to overcome the first-half deficit and beat Northwestern, 61-50.

"We were in foul trouble in the first half; that really hurt us. But when the game was on the line, our guys made the plays and made them with confidence," said Dorman boys basketball coach Thomas Ryan. "I'm ecstatic. That was war. This is what playoff basketball is all about. The crowd was incredible in the second half, and I'm just proud of our guys for stepping up when we faced adversity.

"Noah in the first half, when three or four of our starters had two fouls, he had to pick up the slack, and he did," Ryan said. "In the second half, a senior that's been on varsity for four years, you'd expect him when the game's on the line to go and make those plays, and Jordyn Surratt did that. He was really good, especially in the stretch run with that big emphatic dunk at the end of the third. That was a big momentum changer for us."

Even the 6-foot-10 big man felt how tough of a team the Trojans were, "it was physical, really physical. We got some calls, and we didn't get other calls. That's what you'd expect, but I let it affect me at one point in the game. I was getting frustrated with it," Clowney said. "I felt like somebody had to take on the load in the first half, and I knew I wasn't going to get the calls, so I just try to play through everything. Put the ball on the ground and go to the basket as best I could, defend and keep the score close until my whole team was able to get back in the game."

This type of game and this playoff run is exactly what this team has been preparing for; this is why they traveled past state lines to play some of the best teams from Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, to name a few. So when the playoffs came around, they'd be ready for a battle, and they'd be prepared to keep their eyes on their ultimate goal, the fifth state title in school history.

"I want to go to college happy. I want that ring. I feel like I'm underrated, so winning this state title is about proving not even to them but to myself that I am who I am. I know what I'm capable of, I know what my team's capable of, and I plan on winning the state championship before I got to college," Clowney said.

But to accomplish that goal and send the seniors off to college with another ring on their fingers, they'll have to do what coach Ryan has always been about, focus on the details.

"We have to take every practice seriously, every play seriously," said senior swingman and USC Upstate signee Surratt. "We just have to take it one game at a time. That's all we have to do."

If they do that, well, Clowney said it best, "I don't think anybody in the state is better than us."

Next up for the Cavaliers are the Mavericks from Mauldin High School, a team Dorman is very familiar with.

"We go to Mauldin on Monday night. We know they're really good. They won their region, and we've had battles with them over the years, and so we'll have to go there and do what we did tonight," Ryan said.

This will be the third time Dorman will play Mauldin this year; Dorman won the two previous matchups, 58-55 at home the first time and 53-45 at Mauldin the second time.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Dorman boys basketball advances to quarterfinal over Northwestern