The Worth County boys showed better scoring balance and played well at times against Jefferson, but they struggled too much with fundamentals and fell to the Eagles 72-44 in a running clock loss Tuesday night.
Bryce Ross hurt his collarbone in the North Andrew loss, but it turned out to be a bruise and he came back to play Tuesday night.
In the first quarter, Andrew Mullock led the Tigers with four points, getting a nice take as well as a backdoor layup. Bryce Ross had a 10-footer with a hand in his face, Grant Parman had a putback, and Brevyn Ross added a free throw. Unfortunately, the Tigers struggled on defense, not getting out and guarding shooters, leading to three Eagle 3-pointers at the hands of Jordan McCrary and Sam Kelley. Worth County was playing a man to man, which is designed to stop the outside shooting. But it requires a lot of communication; every time a player sets a screen, his defender has to alert his teammate so that he can get through in time. Unfortunately, there was no talk on defense, allowing a lot of easy outside looks for Jefferson.
Worth County played well at times on defense for the first six minutes of the second quarter; they were forcing Jefferson into turnovers and making them work for their shots. Cole Parman scored off a steal, Brevyn Ross scored off a backdoor layup, Andrew Mullock hit his career high with two free throws, giving him six, and Grant Parman added another two free throws. Bryce Ross scored inside off a pass from Brevyn.
But then Worth County got away from what had been working for them and fell back into their yearlong habit of making crazy passes on offense. They also started taking drives that were not there, allowing for some easy steals and layups on the other end. And Worth County panicked against the Jefferson press, throwing passes that were right at Eagle defenders, allowing some easy points that way as well. They were only down 29-19 at the 2:14 mark, a deficit that was manageable. But that swelled to 37-19 at the break.
Bryce Ross helped keep the margin at 18, powering up inside for two points and getting a putback and converting it into a 3-point play as the deficit was 46-28. But then the team started getting frustrated and taking drives that were not there, going up against three defenders and getting the ball stripped. They were also taking shots that were not there and making more crazy passes on offense. Consequently, it turned into a layup drill as Jefferson scored the next nine points to go up 55-28.
The basic idea in most offenses is to wear the defense down into making mistakes. That is why good teams will swing the ball from side to side, set a ton of screens, and look for an open post player close to the basket. As Northwest Women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg was quoted in one of the papers, it’s a matter of trading a good shot for a great shot. Hall of Fame Coach Claude Samson’s teams would take 2-3 minutes a possession if necessary to find a perfect shot; for him, it was not about stalling the ball, it was about control. All coaches do things a little bit differently, but every good team values the basketball and all five players work together as a team to find the best possible shot. In order to avoid these sorts of debacles in the future, the Tigers will have to learn to value every possession.
Worth County trailed 59-30 after three quarters. Brevyn Ross scored off a pair of steals and Cole Parman scored off a drive, but then Worth County went back into crazy pass mode, throwing at least 10 for the night that resulted in layups, triggering the running clock. Will Rennells hit a pair of backdoor layups late in garbage time action.
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