Noah Beck grew up idolizing powerful point guards like Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose who were never afraid to take flight in the paint. Now the Carroll Academy junior is making a name for himself in the MAIS with a similar explosiveness.
Beck, a standout defensive back and wide receiver on the Rebels’ football team who led the entire state in interceptions (11) as a sophomore, is using his unique combination of strength and speed to break records on the court this season. In November, he set a program mark with 52 points in a win against Deer Creek. Earlier this month, he proved the performance was no fluke with a 47-point outburst against Greenville St. Joe, the top team in District 2-4A.
“He’s super competitive,” first-year Carroll head coach Stephen Crenshaw said of Beck. “He’s going to give it 100% all the time. Noah’s done a good job understanding the importance of getting everyone else involved. But when that’s not clicking, he can put the team on his back. Our offense runs through him.”
The Rebels have struggled at times this season with only six players on their young roster. They finished the regular season 7-11, earning the No. 5 seed for next week’s district tournament. But Beck has been a consistent bright spot for Carroll, averaging 24 points per game — the most among any player in Leflore or Carroll County during the regular season — while reaching double-digit scoring in every game except one.
“I feel like what sets us apart as a team is how competitive we are,” Beck said. “We hate losing, even though we’ve done that a good bit this season.”
Beck and his three brothers were raised in a football family, but he solidified his love for basketball during the summer after his freshman year.
“There was a summer a couple years ago when Mathis and I would sit out in the yard and just play for three hours at a time,” Noah recalled. “We’d go in and get a drink and I’d be like, 'Want to play basketball?'"
“Usually it’d end in a fight,” chuckled Mathis, Noah’s twin and the Rebels’ second-leading scorer at about 18 points per game.
Noah never had any size advantage over his brothers, so he had to find other ways to win, whether it was in basketball or wrestling.
“I knew I was faster than them, but they were always bigger than me so I had to figure out how to get around them, get in the paint and do stuff like that,” he said.
- Contact Riley Overend at 662-581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow @OverendOut on Twitter.
