Senior forward takes charge of Sabres basketball

Malcom Mathews is a tall, soft-spoken kid. He is usually content to sit back and let things come to him.

That has changed this year.

The 6-foot-9, 195-pound senior takes opportunities to be a leader on and off the court. During an interview last week, when his teammates were being rowdy in the locker room making conversation difficult in the next room, Matthews stood up on the sofa and told the players to be quiet.

“See, he never would have done that (last year),” said South Mecklenburg head boys’ basketball coach John Fitch.

The Sabres lost six seniors from last year’s team. This squad is full of new players and Mathews was forced into a leadership role. So far this season, it’s worked out.

Mathews leads the team in points with 20.2 a game, rebounds with 12.4 a game and blocks with more than six a game. He’s averaging nearly eight more points per game than he did last year. And he’s become a senior leader for South Meck.

“I had to step up, because we’ve got a lot of young players,” said Mathews, 18. “They need somebody to mentor them through the season to get them better for next year, so I had to step up.”

Mathews has come a long way from when he started playing.

He grew up in Pittsburgh and started playing basketball at around 10 years old, not necessarily because he wanted to, but because others kept telling him he should.

“I wasn’t really into basketball,” Mathews said. “I was always just tall and people expected me to play.”

He played high school varsity as a seventh grader in Pittsburgh and said the game came easy to him and he started to have fun.

His eighth grade year, he moved to Charlotte. Fitch remembers coming to see Mathews play as an eighth grader on the Quail Hollow Middle School team. He was already about 6-foot-8 then, only an inch or so shorter than he is now.

Freshman year, Mathews played half the season on South Meck’s varsity team. He admits it was a little overwhelming playing with older and other tall players. Sophomore year, he was ineligible.

His junior year was his first real chance to contribute on varsity. He was surrounded with experienced players – like senior forward David Moore and senior guard Carrington Kirkpatrick – and also had a fellow big man in 6-foot-9 junior Phillip Reed. He averaged 12.8 points that year, tied for first on the team with Kirkpatrick, while grabbing 9.5 rebounds a game and blocking an average of 6.1 shots. The team finished 23-6 and was the regular season Southwestern 4A champion.

“Last season, I could take breaks and everything,” Mathews said. “I had players that could back me up. We had a solid team.”

This year, those seniors graduated and Reed transferred to Northside Christian Academy. Mathews is one of three seniors on a team that Fitch said has 10 players with no prior varsity experience.

Mathews was the only returning post presence. The player who had been content to sit back in previous years had to become a leader. Mathews said it wasn’t that hard for him.

Fitch has watched Mathews be more vocal in practice, teaching players and getting on them if they aren’t putting forth enough effort.

“He started coming out of his shell,” Fitch said. “I think he got more comfortable as time went on and now, going into his senior year, he’s shown a tremendous amount of leadership, which I didn’t know if he was capable of.”

Mathews likes playing on defense, getting steals, grabbing rebounds and making blocks that turn into fast breaks and easy points.

“I think he’s one of the best shot blockers I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Fitch said. “His timing is incredible. You can’t teach that. ... He stays on the ground a long time then he goes up. He jumps a lot higher than people realize.”

He’s also improved offensively. Mathews is more aggressive around the basket and he’s also one of the team’s best passers, averaging 2.4 assists per game, the second highest average on the team.

The Sabres are 7-8 overall this year (3-2 SW4A through Jan. 17), tied for second in the conference. If the Sabres are going to repeat as regular season conference champions, the team will need continued strong play from Mathews and fellow seniors C.J. Thompson and Chris Phifer.

Mathews plays nearly every minute of every single game. Fitch’s hope for Mathews is that he starts playing hard every minute.

But Mathews has shown how hard – and well – he can play. In last year’s state playoff loss to West Charlotte (who went on to lose in the state championship game) Mathews held North Carolina recruit Kennedy Meeks to 13 points.

“The spotlight was on me,” Mathews said about the game. “Everybody was asking me questions like, ‘Are you going to shut him down? Are you going to stop him?’ So I had to step up and be focused.”

Fitch would like to see Mathews do that every time. He thinks Mathews could have a good college career if he finds the right fit, but the senior has to want it and work for it.

In the first game of South Meck’s holiday tournament this year (a loss to Anson County), Mathews scored three points in the first half. He scored 19 in the second.

“I would like to see him go 19-19, which he can do,” Fitch said. “In my opinion, he should dominate every game he plays because he can.

“He’s having a great year, don’t get me wrong, but I know what he can do.”