Before the start of the 2008-09 school year, a soon-to-be high school senior Demetrius Walker moved to Arizona from California, enrolled at St. Mary’s in Phoenix and teamed up with another senior for the Knights, Blake Davis.
The two would ultimately lead the Knights to their first state championship since 2001 back when Channing Frye ran the show.
That was the last time Walker and Davis were on the basketball court together. Both have taken different roads in their basketball careers since.
Demetrius Walker began his career at Arizona State where he came off the bench and averaged about 23 minutes a game. After his freshman year, he transferred to the University of New Mexico where he spent his last three years.
Now as a graduate transfer, he is back in Arizona and a member of the Grand Canyon University basketball team for his final year of eligibility while he pursues his masters degree.
After Blake Davis graduated from St. Mary’s, he went off to play for Weber State where he spent two seasons. In 2011, he transferred to GCU and his versatile game has seen him start 26 games over the last two seasons.
It has been a long road that has taken both on different turns, but has them ultimately back in the same place together for one final year, just like it was at the end of high school.
“I am really excited,” said Walker. “I am happy to be playing with my old teammate Blake Davis. We won a state championship here my senior year so I am happy to be back home.”
“We both took weird journeys to get here where we are,” added Blake Davis. “We both kind of lost motivation for the game a little bit. But now with this last year, Coach Majerle’s here, he’s letting us play, he is giving us confidence in our game.”
Now as they both are in their final years of playing college basketball, they are hoping to bring back some of the same magic they had four years ago.
“It’s really cool to see the fire coming back into it,” explained Davis. “And we kind of get some flashbacks of high school out here too.”
“I am looking to transfer back in here to Arizona again with BD and hopefully win a WAC championship this time,” mentioned Walker.
What makes the two successful together on the floor isn’t just their chemistry, it’s how well their games accent each others.
“I am a pick-n-pop guy and he is really good off the ball screens so when I set him screens, he gets off the screens well,” explained Davis. “He finds me or he finishes the play. Either way we get the bucket and it’s a good thing.”
Walker, Davis and the Lopes kick-off their first season at the division I level this week and while it is uncertain for now how the Lopes will adjust at the next level of play, Walker knows there is one area where this team will be among the best.
“We are very hardworking,” stated Walker. “We are probably the hardest working team in the WAC right now. We got that going for us right now so if we can keep that up, skies the limit for us.”
Lopes basketball is in San Diego, California to tip-off their much anticipated 2013-14 season against Loyola Marymount this friday at 5:30pm.
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Jared Cohen
A born and bred Arizonan, Jared has had great passion for the hometown teams all his life. He now channel's that passion into covering the pro, college and high school teams around the state as a Multimedia Reporter for Sports360AZ.