Emari Russell. Jacqui Smith Watson photo.

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SPENCER — North Rowan’s Emari Russell, a dynamic guard and an all-district player who will compete in this summer’s East-West All-Star Game in Greensboro, signed with Livingstone College on Friday.

It’s not easy for high school players to get recruited these days with the transfer portal providing seasoned veterans, but Russell, who averaged 20 points per game and produced a 581-point season in his only year at North, found a place he really likes.

“Livingstone is an HBCU, and that was important for me,” Russell said. “And in a lot of ways, it’s a big plus for me to be able to play right at home in front of friends and family.”

Russell is not big, about 5-foot-10, 165 pounds, but he’s strong enough and his speed and quickness are elite. He’s tough to stay in front of. He can break down defenses, and he enjoys finding the open man even more than he likes making the acrobatic finish.

“Emari is a great athlete, a very special athlete,” said former North head coach Jason Causby. “And he’s got that feel for the game that not many guys have.”

That’s the thing about Russell. He is a true point guard, but he is a point guard who also can fill it up. In his final game for North Rowan in the third round of the 1A state playoffs against Bishop McGuinness, the Cavaliers really needed Russell to score and he responded with 41 points.

That’s right, 41.

“I see myself as a pass-first point guard who can defend,” Russell said. “I want to get 10 assists every night, maybe even 20 assists, but I also have confidence that I can score if needed. I just try to do whatever my team needs me to do. That playoff game when I scored 41, the last thing on my mind was scoring so many points. It just happened. I was just trying as hard as I could to win the game. I didn’t want our season to end.”

Russell knows how to win. He played his freshman year at A.L. Brown and was moved up to the varsity during the season. His next two seasons were spent playing for coach Jim Baker at Central Cabarrus, and those were legendary 3A championship seasons. Russell jumped off the bench early for those teams and provided an instant spark defensively and offensively.

Russell came to North Rowan for his senior year, as his father Quentin McDaniel, who played ball at Salisbury High, was hired as an assistant principal at North.

Russell credits his mother, Ellen Russell, for a lot of his athletic ability. She was a good hooper for South Rowan in the 2000s. She scored several 18s for the Raiders, but she didn’t have any 41s.

Russell scored 20 or more points in 16 games for the Cavaliers and topped 30 several times. He surpassed 1,000 career points, but he still flew mostly under the radar for colleges.

He drew as much interest for football as basketball. He had a very impactful senior season for North football as a receiver/DB. He had 42 catches for 789 yards and seven touchdowns and attracted the attention of DIII schools such as Methodist and Averett.

But Russell loves basketball most and was thrilled when the Blue Bears started recruiting him during the season. Until Livingstone got interested, he had only gotten basketball offers from junior colleges.

“Livingstone came to watch me play and they also invited me to watch them play,” Russell said. “I really like the coaching staff and the players and I felt at ease when I visited there. It’s a great school and they play in a competitive basketball league (CIAA) with a lot of tough teams.”

Livingstone’s biggest rivals are in-state — J.C. Smith, Winston-Salem State, Fayetteville State — and there are some Saturday nights at New Trent Gym that are so loud that you think the roof might blow off.

Russell is looking forward to being part of that CIAA atmosphere and plans to major in sports management.