On the wall in the Ellwood Christian gymnasium, the words “Eagles pride” are painted on one of part of the wall. Although the words have been written there for years, they might best describe this year’s Ellwood boys basketball team, which players say is closer than ever.

The Eagles have given fans plenty to cheer about after starting the year 5-4 and getting ranked No. 10 in the class 1A rankings.

“There’s a buzz around the city, there’s a buzz everywhere I go,” said Ellwood coach Darrell Walker. “Everywhere I go people are saying, ‘hey man what are y’all doing? We want to come check y’all out.’”

Ellwood has won three straight games, including two wins over Linden last week. The third was a 60-50 win over Choctaw County Friday in the Linden Classic. The key for success in Friday’s win was the same as it’s been all year for Ellwood — good defense and balanced scoring.

Chris Lee scored 18 points, Mel Phillips had 15 points and 15 rebounds and Justin Bufford, a ninth grader, had 11 points and 10 rebounds. All three of those guys have been impact players all year long.

Phillips, an 11th grader, has been on Ellwood teams of the past when the Eagles weren’t anywhere near any kind of ranking.

He said the difference this year is that Ellwood is playing team oriented basketball and working hard.

“We are closer than all of our others team have been,” Phillips said. “We’re more like brothers.”

The Eagles have also received a big contribution from senior Markeis McMillian, who is playing organized basketball for the first time this year. After transferring schools, he had to sit out last season. McMillian said he participated in every practice last year and went to every game, trying to get ready for his senior year.

“It hurt me because I thought I was never going to play this year, but I always kept my composure and stayed humble,” McMIllian said. “I knew my time would come.”

McMIllian has developed into Ellwood’s top outside scoring threat. Last week against Linden, he made six 3-pointers.

“To me, he’s the best shooter in the city. If you leave him open for the three, he will hit the three,” Walker said.

Ellwood figures to get even better in January. The team will add transfer Loveless Craig to its arsenal, a great athlete who has experience at the 6A level with Selma. Craig is already practicing with the starters and is expected to take on a big role once he’s eligible.

The Eagles will play one of their most anticipated games of the year Friday when Dallas County plays at Ellwood in a battle of county schools. Dallas County is the only county school Ellwood is playing this season.

“It’s a great test because you are going against a championship coach in coach Moore and the Dallas County program for numerous years has had a great program,” Walker said.

Walker said the game will be a great measuring stick for his team, since they’ll be playing a 5A program that has a recent history of great success.

Of course, the Eagles have bigger goals than just Friday.

“To me if everything works right and we keep working hard and we keep doing what we need to do and we keep tying up all the little things, we can go as far as we’d like to,” Walker said.

“We would love to be in Birmingham in late February, early March.”