It’s never easy for the staff of The Selma Times-Journal to pick an all-county basketball team, but this year was especially difficult. For the first time in several years, there wasn’t a Division I basketball signee to choose as player of the year or a team that made it to Birmingham and competed for a state championship.

Ellwood Christian managed to go as far as the state quarterfinals — just three wins from a state championship — before bowing out against Cornerstone. With all that said, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of talent in Dallas County this year. It actually means just the opposite. Not having one dominant player or team meant more competitive games, balanced rosters and a chance for more players to shine.

That also meant for a more competitive all-county team and only 10 players could make it. It’s an almost impossible task to pick the 10 best players in the county because there’s always another 10 players you could make a case for, but we tried again in 2017 to do so.

The boys first-team is headlined by Times-Journal Player of the Year Loveless Craig, who averaged 18 points per game for the Eagles this season.

He’s joined by seniors Justyn Pettway from Keith, Jeffery Huff Jr. from Selma and junior Justin McGuire from Meadowview Christian. Dallas County junior point guard Andre Hall rounds out the first team.

The second team is led by Ellwood Christian freshman Justin Bufford. He’s joined by Keith senior Jimmie Powell, Dallas County senior Josh Benford, Meadowview Christian senior Sam Dabit and Morgan Academy junior Sawyer Hopkins.