Pacers keep up their spirits, game faces to honor Clanton

His name hasn't shown up in a box score one time this season. He hasn't drawn up a single play or put together a game plan. But if you ask the USC Aiken basketball players to name the one person most responsible for the Peach Belt Conference Tournament title the Pacers captured last Sunday with a win over Montevallo, they will all answer the same way - Javonte Clanton.

Clanton was the Pacers' starting point guard last season, a year that saw USCA post a 25-8 record and advance further than any team in school history. The Pacers made it all the way to the NCAA Division II Sweet 16 before falling to Augusta State with a trip to the Elite Eight in Springfield, Mass., on the line.

USCA players, coaches and fans were heartbroken after the defeat, but it was nothing compared to the hurt that was about to hit the program and the entire Aiken community. In the wee hours of the morning after the Augusta State victory, Clanton, who averaged 12 points and 3.3 assists per game and was a second-team All-PBC selection in his only year with the Pacers, fell asleep at the wheel and was killed in an automobile accident on his way to visit his family in Ohio.

The USCA campus was crushed. The Aiken community mourned, and Clanton's Pacer teammates struggled just to get through one day at a time.

"It was very tough," admitted senior guard Mark Brown. "Anytime you lose a teammate and a friend, it is tough. His locker was beside mine, and he always had a joke or something to say."

As the days, weeks and months passed, the players began to heal. They traveled to Ohio together for Clanton's funeral, they held a vigil on campus to grieve with their classmates and they each spent private moments handling the situation their own way.

But as the 2009-10 basketball season approached, the focus turned away from their personal hurt and toward honoring their former teammate in the right way. Clanton's No. 22 was sewn into every player's jersey. The team held a ceremony dedicating Clanton's locker, which still bears his name, for what would have been his senior season, and they made a promise to Clanton's family.

"We told his Mom and his Grammy, the two ladies closest to his heart, that we were going to go out and get him a ring," said senior swingman Seth Leonard. "That was our goal, because that's what 'Te would have wanted."

They also made it a priority to make sure that their play on the court displayed the lessons that Clanton had tried to teach them.

"Javonte played with a lot of heart and a lot of passion," Brown said. "I think that taught me a lot about defense. Since I've been here, I have been known as more of an offensive player and mostly a shooter. But I have tried to become more of a defensive player this year, because 'Te always said that defense wins games. Little things like that made me have a stronger passion for the game."

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Playing for 'Te

¬ Clanton's death helped the USCA squad transform from a team into a family, but with a lot of new faces in the mix, the play on the court was up and down. The Pacers displayed their talent at points - putting together a couple of winning streaks - but at times they also displayed their youth - losing 10 games, including three in a row directly following a seven-game winning streak.

But when Augusta State visited Aiken on Jan. 25, the Pacers knew they couldn't come up short. Clanton's final game had been played against ASU, and USCA dedicated the evening to No. 22. Shirts were sold with Clanton's name and number to help fund the Javonte Clanton Memorial Scholarship, and everywhere you turned in the USCA Convocation Center, that No. 22 was staring you in the face.

"That brought our students together, and I hadn't seen that in the five years I had been here," said USCA head coach Vince Alexander. "It was special. When he was playing, you didn't realize the impact he was having on this community. But now that he is gone, you think about all those things."

Putting the icing on the cake, though, was no easy task. The Jaguars were ranked in the top 10 in the country and were considered heavy favorites in the contest. But even after falling behind by 10 points at halftime, USCA stormed back to win 71-68, and the sold-out crowd chanted, "22, 22" as the clock ran out on a Pacers victory.

"We knew that we couldn't let him down, because 'Te was the type of person who wasn't going to let anybody down," Leonard said. "He was going to give you all he had."

The Pacers went on another roller-coaster ride over the next few weeks, going 4-4 in their final eight regular-season games after the triumph over the Jags, but when the PBC Tournament began, the focus returned.

USCA started the tournament by knocking off Francis Marion in the quarterfinals, getting revenge for two regular-season losses to the Patriots. Up next was Clayton State, another team that had beaten the Pacers in the regular season, and USCA rose to the occasion again, advancing to the title game with a victory over the Lakers.

With only one win left between USCA and the ring it had promised the Clanton family, Montevallo, the Pacers' opponent in the championship game, had no chance. USCA built up a huge second-half lead and then held off the Falcons down the stretch to win its first PBC Tournament title since 1993 and fulfill the promise the players had made before the season started.

"Once we started to receive the awards, that's when it hit me," said Alexander, who said his team will send a ring to Clanton's family as soon as the jewelry arrives. "Javonte would have been getting his award, and you know how that smile would have been on his face. That Augusta State game and the Peach Belt championship, I just felt like he was there. I was very emotional, and I thought about him and prayed. I just wish he was here to receive that trophy with us, but I know in spirit he was."

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Keeping the legacy alive

¬ USCA hopes to provide one more tribute to Clanton before the season is over. The Pacers' PBC title gave them an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, and they will begin play on Saturday at Augusta State's Christenberry Fieldhouse against Georgia College & State at noon. If the Pacers can defeat the Bobcats, they will need just two more wins to earn that trip to the Elite Eight that Clanton had wanted so badly last season.

After that, though, the Pacers want to be sure that Clanton's memory lives on and that future USCA teams learn from his example.

"His character is something that will stay around," Leonard said. "He was a great guy, a great friend and an excellent teammate. He left a great legacy behind, and we're reminded of him every day."

"I think it is going to help that we are going to have his scholarship," said Alexander, who explained that they will begin awarding a basketball scholarship in Clanton's name next season. "The person that gets that scholarship better know that he has to be special. I won't just give it to anybody. If they don't meet (the requirements) we will let it sit there. You have to have the commitment that he had in the basketball court and in the classroom, and you have to have the tenacity and the fight that he had. That kid had been through so much, but he never stopped fighting. You have to be that kind of person."

For now, though, the Pacers family is pointing toward freshman guard Re'mon Nelson as the man who can carry on the Clanton tradition. Nelson, like Clanton, hails from the Columbus area of Ohio, and USCA players say he displays many of the same characteristics both on and off the court.

"It's sort of scary that God brought him here," Alexander said. "He does remind us of Javonte a lot. He is tough, and he's so competitive. They have a lot of similarities. After that Augusta State game, Javonte's mom wanted to meet Re', because she knew that Javonte hosted him when he came on his visit and she knew he was from Ohio. When he walked up, she got teary-eyed and said, 'He looks like Javonte, and he smiles like Javonte.' That was sort of special."