Bluejays survive defensive battle

January 14, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

NORTH JACKSON

Defense.

That was the quick response of Jackson-Milton boys basketball coach Gary Nagy when asked about his team’s formula for success this season.

“Defense has been our major focus this year. Last year we had two thousand-point scorers but we didn’t play much defense,” Nagy said. “This year we have to play defense because we don’t have those scorers anymore.”

That defense was on display Friday night, especially in the middle two quarters, as the Bluejays stopped neighborhood rival Western Reserve, 45-32. The win keeps Jackson-Milton (7-5 overall) atop the Inter Tri-County League Tier Two with a 5-2 record.

“We knew this was going to be a defensive battle, no doubt about it,” Nagy said. “The rivalry between the two schools, you can’t beat it.”

The defensive aspect of the game played into the hands of Western Reserve, at least for awhile. The game was 11-11 after one quarter and the Blue Devils (6-4, 3-3) trailed by just 15-14 midway into the second quarter. Jackson-Milton put together a 10-3 run to lead 25-17 at halftime, then outscored WR 9-3 in the third period.

“That’s the only chance we have to compete because we struggle to score,” Western Reserve coach Tim King said. “If the games get up above 50 points we’re in trouble because we can’t score 50 points. We concentrate on defense to make the game low-scoring so we can hang around and maybe steal one at the end.”

Trailing 35-20 a minute into the final quarter, Western Reserve battled back to within 37-31 at the 3:16 mark. But the Blue Devils were without point guard Tim Cooper, who had fouled out, and just missed too many interior shots against the Jackson-Milton 3-2 zone.

“We need to make those shots because we are not a good scoring team and we have to take advantage of those situations,” King lamented.

Nagy was pleased with the results of the Bluejays’ first use of zone defense.

“We played man-to-man all year long with a little bit of trapping defenses, but that’s the first time we’ve played the 3-2 defense,” he said. “I thought the boys hustled well and made it effective.”

Jackson-Milton held the Blue Devils to 3-for-16 shooting in the middle two quarters and forced 13 turnovers during that time.

On offense, Ryan Nagy led the Jays with 17 points. Zach Nagy had 11 points and six assists and Brennan Morrison was very active with 10 rebounds and five steals.

The Devils got 14 points from Jeff Clegg.

“Jackson-Milton is a good team,” King said. “We knew coming in here with the rivalry, they’d be ready to play. I was hoping we’d be ready to play, I was real pleased with our physical effort. We just struggled to score.”

Nagy said his players have surpassed his preseason expectations and are looking forward to the impending ITCL title race.

“We are way ahead of where I thought we would be at this point,” he said. “The boys have really come together as a group and are playing good ball together.

“I think the kids are excited. They haven’t been in a competitive situation like this in a long time.”