Guard has big night for Abbeville High

Tyrone Glover has carried the scoring load for the Abbeville High Wildcats for much of the 2022-23 basketball season so far.
But even head coach Trevor Eaton was surprised when he saw that his senior guard had scored 38 points on Tuesday in a non-district win at Comeaux.
“To be honest with you I didn’t realize he even had 38 until I checked the scorebook after the game,” Eaton said. “But he’s been averaging 20 points a game for us, so he’s the guy who carries the load for us when it comes to scoring. He always plays with energy. He sets the tone for us when it comes to our energy and how we want to play basketball.
“Traditionally, Abbeville has always been a fast-paced team. We always like to get out and run, so he fits right into the system that we have in place in order for us to be successful. Him, along with Chad Nolan as well. Those two guys right there, they’re really our motor.”
Glover said that he scored a lot of his points against Comeaux in transition.
“Our pace is fast and we’re defensive minded. so we’ve got to get serious (on defense) to get points,” Glover said, adding that is the style he likes to play. “We need to improve on our half court offense and we need to get more disciplined on the defensive side to beat a lot of teams.”
Glover and Nolan are guards and two of the team’s six seniors, along with Derrian Washington, Jaysen Shelvin, Tyler Cherry and Jaydeon Turner.
“In our system we don’t have a true point guard,” Eaton said. “We kind of keep it open to where pretty much anybody can handle the ball for us. Where we’re successful at is off of defense. And that’s where he scores most of his points. He scores most of his points in transition off of defensive stops. Our defense has been really good as a team. We’re able to get a lot of defensive stops and we push the ball.”
The Wildcats were off to a 10-5 start heading into Friday’s District 5-3A opener against Crowley. Abbeville has nearly identical offensive and defensive numbers, having scored 733 points and allowed 731 for an average of 48.8 points scored and 48.7 points allowed a game. AHS has allowed a season high of 70 points and has only given up 60 or more in four games while holding teams to under 50 on six occasions.
“I guess he’s just been lucky enough to be the guy who ends up open in our transition offense,” Eaton said.
Prior to being named head coach this year, Eaton was an assistant to head coach Berwick Hamilton, for whom Eaton played. He then worked with AHS head coach Colby Batiste, now head coach at Highland Baptist, and afterwards with Wildcats head coach Nolan Theriot, now head coach at North Vermilion.
“(Hamilton) is pretty much who I learned the game from,” Eaton said. “We’ve struggled a little bit the last few years. We’ve been struggling defensively and offensively. Our halfcourt offense is still a little trouble for us. We’re having a little trouble being successful on the offensive side, halfcourt wise. That’s why our transition offense and our defense is really very important for us to be able to be successful.”
Eaton said that the first thing he told the team before the Wildcats started playing summer league ball was that the team wouldn’t be successful without playing well defensively.
“If we can’t play defense, if we can’t stop anybody, if we don’t hang our hats on defense, if we can’t buy into it, we’re not going to be successful. And the group of seniors that I’ve got, they really took that to heart based off of previous years, and the facts. The guys have been working hard on the defensive end.”
Glover said Eaton has stressed discipline on and off the court.
“He always wanted us to stay disciplined and to play our game and not to be scared, not only on the court but outside the court, in the classroom,” Glover said. “He always taught us that we have to stay disciplined, that we’ve always got to be accountable, and that we always have to have communication not only on the court but off the court.”
Glover said the team knows defense is the key for the Wildcats’ success this year.
“We’ve got to get very disciplined on the defensive side because that’s how we’re going to beat a lot of good teams in the future.”
Four of the seniors also played football for a team that reached the semifinals in 2021 and the second round of the playoffs this year. It’s not only the seniors who are buying into the basketball team’s philosophy, though.
“It’s team success right here, true team success,” Eaton said. “They’ve been playing together for the last 10 years when it comes to youth sports and all that, so they’re all used to each other. They’re all used to playing with each other. It’s really helped us build our program back to where it used to be.”
Glover said a lot of players are contributing, not just the seniors.
“We’ve got some sophomores and freshmen and juniors that are stepping up a little bit to help,” he said. “Our goal is just to build a future and build more discipline for our team for people to have a good image of our team.”
Glover said a lot of fans mention St. Martinville when talking about the Wildcats’ district schedule.
“We’ve got to play our game,” he said. “We can’t let anybody tell us what we can and cannot do.”