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High School Basketball

WTOC Players of the Week

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By Rick Snow - bio | email
Faith Sanders Faith Sanders
Derek Kirkland Derek Kirkland

Faith Sanders of Jenkins and Derek Kirkland of Calvary Day are the WTOC Players of the Week. Both players helped their teams to 3 important wins last week.

Sanders led the Lady Warriors to wins over Groves, Ware County and Country Day by averaging a double-double in points and rebounds. The junior scored 51 points in those three games which helped Jenkins get back into the race in region 3-AAAA.

She said she dreamed about winning player of the week, "I was in my room, just laying in my bed and I was like, gawd, I hope I get player of the week because I've been going really hard this week.   So, I'm just excited and I'm just ready to keep going forward with this season."

Lady Warriors head coach Jim Burke added, "You know, she can't do it all herself and she's learning that.  She's maturing as a basketball player, as a young lady, as well.  It's only going to make a bright future for her."

Tuesday night, Jenkins will host Effingham County, the leaders in the region.

Derek Kirkland of Calvary Day helped lead the Cavaliers to wins over Portal in double overtime, as well as Country Day and Benedictine.

He scored 55 points in those games, but he's the kind of player who does whatever it takes in that particular game for the Cavs to have their best chance to win. "Well, we've come together as a team," said Kirkland.  "Coach (Jason Shell) has us practicing hard every day making sure we hold nothing back.  Our team chemistry is building and we're going to be a hard team to beat in the long run.  The whole team is stepping up their game and they've got to get me the ball to score points and I do what I can to help the team win."

"Derek is a really strong player," said Shell. "He's kind of an inside-out guy.  He's real strong and real physical and gets a lot of offensive rebounds.  He's kind of overall a very versatile player which you love to have on your team."

Tuesday night, the Cavs will host Jenkins County in a huge Region 3-A game.