Keonte Smith will have a different role on Moore High’s basketball team this season than he had the past two seasons. This winter, he will have to share scoring honors with several of his teammates rather than having that burden solely placed on himself.
Smith, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound shooting guard, averaged 17 points a game as a sophomore and 20 points a game for an 8-18 team as a junior.
“Keonte was required to score the last two years, but this season he’ll get help,” Moore’s new head coach, Roy Sutton, said. The coach was referring to Ramon Collins, a 6-5 junior forward who transferred after playing for the 2015 Sixth Region champion Doss, and senior Robbie Hagman.
Also, Moore expects 6-5 freshman center Justin Weaver, who started as an eighth-grader, to score more.
“This year Keonte probably will score less, but his number of assists will go up,” Sutton said.
Moore opens its season on Tuesday, Dec. 1, in a road game at Pleasure Ridge Park.
How young were you when you started playing basketball?
My momma played basketball at Western (High School) and she put a ball in my hands when I was little – about 4 years old. I started playing organized ball in AAU when I was 9.
Will you mind sharing the ball more with your teammates this season?
Yeah, I mind because I’m used to scoring, but I’d rather average two points a game and win the region (and make Moore’s first trip to the Sweet 16 state tournament in Lexington since 1994).
What’s been your high point game in your high school career?
I had 33 points against PRP last season. I hit a 3-point shot to tie the game and send it into overtime, but we lost by one point on a last-second shot. I hit seven 3s in that game.
Now that you have some scoring help, teams won’t be able to key their defenses on you. What was your low scoring game last season?
Fern Creek held me to six points and they won by 30 (actually 75-41 in the first round of the regional). Coach Sutton (an assistant at Fern Creek last season) said they double-teamed me and keyed on me. They basically trapped me the whole game and sometimes had three men on me.
Did you spend your summer playing basketball?
My uncle, who played at Lindsey Wilson, worked me out to improve my defense. And I played for the Truth Elite team. At the National AAU tournament here, we got kicked out of the 17-year-old division because we had some guys 18. They put us in the 19 division. We got to the championship game and lost. I got eight points.
What do you do in your spare time?
I play video games or go to the gym and shoot around. Every Sunday, I go to Southeast Christian Church and play basketball, then we have a Bible study after that.
You watch a lot of basketball on TV, but which college team is your favorite and who is your favorite player (college or pro)?
Duke is my favorite team. I like the color blue and my momma said I can’t like UK because she’s a Louisville fan. Kevin Durant is my favorite player. He can really shoot.
How anxious are you to start your senior season?
We started a long time ago. We played 20 games this summer and won 16, then started practice in October. If we could make it to state it would be nice.
KEONTE SMITH UP CLOSE
School: Moore.
Year: Senior.
Sport: Basketball.
Student-athlete: Keonte has an overall GPA of 2.0, but expects to get a 2.7 this semester. His favoite subjects are algebra and sports medicine. He has been on the varsity basketball team four years, and coach Roy Sutton considers him a Division I player.
Family: Keonte lives with his mother, Lakiesha, brother Nevion, 9. and sister Breona, 21.
Coach Sutton: “Keonte is a pure shooting guard. He can create his own shot and he can catch and shoot it, too. I took this job because of him. That was after I saw him on film and before we got Ramon Collins.”