By Patrick Hayes

Former Oak Park standouts Dimitri Abner and Kendrick Ward have been an effective tandem as high school players at Oak Park and then as junior college players at Columbus State. Now, they’ll continue that trend as members of the Division II West Virginia State basketball team. From a WVSU news release:

“Kendrick Ward and Dimitri Abner are two hard working kids who developed into what an NCAA four-year university student athlete is,” Columbus State Coach Pat Carlisle said. “Abner developed into a polished, undersized power forward with great athletic ability. Kendrick is maybe the toughest kid I have coached in my six years at Columbus State.”

Abner averaged 13.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting 56 percent. Ward averaged either 9 points and 5 assists per game if you go with the WVSU news release’s stats or 6.5 points and 1.4 assists per game if you go with the NJCAA stats — not really sure which source has the right numbers there. But at any rate, Abner and Ward were part of a talented Michigan contingent at Columbus State that also featured Flint native Glenn Cosey, who has signed with Tennessee Tech.