By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Vic Joyner never imagined.
Justin McCleary dared to dream.
Joyner, Jacksonville’s coach, liked the makeup of this year’s Red Devils from the outset of the season. But, eyeballing the tough 6A-East schedule, he had a hard time envisioning Jacksonville (24-3, 11-3) playing for a state championship.
“We figured we might be able to squeak out five games,” Joyner said of the conference slate. “We thought maybe five games, and we knew we were going to go to the tournament and we were going to try to have them ready at the end, but we thought five games at the best.”
McCleary, the Red Devils’ sophomore point guard, may have been giving in to the exuberance of youth, but unlike Joyner he let himself picture the scenario that has in fact played out.
Jacksonville meets Little Rock Parkview today to decide the 6A state championship at Hot Springs’ Summit Arena. Tipoff is 4:15 p.m.
“I had a couple dreams about it,” McCleary said. “I didn’t think we were going to go this deep though. But we came out, we pushed it, worked hard all season and we’re going to the state championship.”
McCleary lent more than his imagination to the Red Devils’ effort.
He is second on the team with an average 9.2 points a game and leads with an average three assists while running the point for Jacksonville. McCleary is a vital member of a rotating cast of characters who have proven capable of coming up with a big moment when needed.
“They’ve been solid all year,” Joyner said. “McCleary and James Aikens, Terrell Brown, Jamison Williams, Aaron Smith. They’ve all, in certain games in the course of the year, they’ve all stepped up and made big shots and big plays.”
Jacksonville’s acknowledged star is senior guard Raheem Appleby, averaging 19.7 points a game. Appleby has posted big night after big night and, even slowed by a bad ankle, he led the Devils with 13 points in their 6A semifinal victory over Jonesboro.
But when Appleby has been double teamed, ill, injured or just taking a breather, someone has always been there to fill the void.
“Everybody tries to play their roles,” said Brown, the Devils’ junior post player. “I try to get the buckets in the paint and get some trash rebounds here and there. Dustin House, he shoots outside for us good, Jamison Williams plays the three, he gets rebounds and scores for us, Justin McCleary is strong with the ball and plays a good point guard.”
Brown is a case in point. At 6-3, 230 pounds, he has had to work all season against bigger inside players — like Little Rock Parkview forward and Arkansas signee Aaron Ross — and leads a group-rebounding effort with an average 3.6.
“He’s giving up 30 pounds, 40 pounds to those kids,” Joyner said.
Brown expects to bang up against Ross again today in what figures to be a tightly played game between two very familiar opponents.
Jacksonville, gunning for its second state championship in three years, split with Parkview during the regular-season series.
The Red Devils beat the Patriots 60-44 on Feb. 1 at the Devils Den, then traveled to Parkview for the rematch on Feb. 8, with Parkview winning 61-51.
Because of its margin of victory, Jacksonville earned the tiebreaker share of the 6A-East championship and the conference’s highest seed to the state tournament.
“It’s going to be a war of attrition,” Joyner said. “It’s going to be who wants it the worst. It’s going to come down to a couple breaks here and there, a couple of turnovers here and there, a couple of rebounds here and there.
“It’s what it boils down to all the time. Especially when you’re playing a team that’s familiar with you.”
If Appleby, who injured his ankle in the Jonesboro semifinal and wore a boot until Wednesday’s practice, is slowed today — and Joyner was predicting he would only be at about 70 percent of full strength — the other Devils are going to have to show up big one more time.
“You don’t have a choice,” Joyner said. “It’s not like the NBA where you can go out and recruit somebody for the postseason.
“You’ve got to dance with the one you brought and these are the kids we’ve had all year and we’re going to take them win, lose or draw; we’re going to put them out there and they’re going to do the best they can and God’s will be done.”
