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Durant's Top Scorer Ejected

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By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 12, 2008

PLANT CITY - Durant junior A.J. Garden's pursuit of the 1,000-career point mark has been put on hold - by Garden.

The talented guard lost his composure in the championship game of the Beef O' Brady's New Year's Shootout at Durant High on Jan. 5 and was ejected after a physical foul against a Blake player.

Garden was suspended by the state for at least two games with his career point total stuck at 999.

"We will play very hard without him," said Durant head coach Jeff Shotwell, who had no qualms with the officials for ejecting Garden.

It was a bad day all around for the Cougars, who lost to Blake 60-50 and had to play without another starter because of injury. Royce Rose rolled his ankle Jan. 4. in a closer-than-expected semifinal win over Spoto.

Garden was ejected in the first quarter of the game Jan. 5. After scoring 23 points against Spoto, he was six points shy of the 1,000 mark. He received a warning early in the game for throwing the ball in the other direction when an official was asking for it.

Then, as Garden had five points on the game, he committed a turnover and reacted in an extreme fashion.

"He basically picked a Blake kid up and threw him to the floor," Shotwell said. "Thank goodness the Blake player got up and was OK. It looked pretty bad when it happened. Honestly, I haven't seen anything like that in 11 years in coaching."

Shotwell said that Garden has been ejected from two summer camps.

"Our kids played very well without him then, so I don't expect this to be any different," Shotwell said. "We practiced well without him" Monday.

Garden is the team's leading scorer, averaging 19 points per game.

Rose had 12 points and eight rebounds in the game against Spoto, one in which the Cougars were down 41-24 at halftime. Dexter Barge had 14 points and 15 rebounds and Jeffrey Thomas scored 10 points. Durant caught up by the end of the third quarter, outscoring the Spartans 25-7 in the period.

Shotwell expected Garden would miss this week's games, but possibly might face harsher punishment, perhaps a six-week suspension. Durant is at a critical juncture in the schedule as it tries to improve its position in the District 6A-8 standings.

On Friday, Durant was set to take on rival Plant City.

Next week should prove to be pivotal with three district games scheduled: Tuesday against Lakeland, Wednesday at Sarasota Riverview and Friday at home against Sarasota High.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa trib.com.

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