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South Range defenders overwhelm Crestview
South Range vs. Crestview
Gallery
Raiders’ pressure produces romp
By Eric Fortune
BEAVER TOWNSHIP
With McDonald and South Range on the schedule, it’s not been a week to be jolly for the Crestview High School boys basketball team.
Friday, South Range’s defense was nearly flawless in a 75-29 victory.
“We had a week of playing some pretty good teams,” Crestview coach Herman Miller said. “They’re different in their own respect.
“South Range is a more solid half-court defensive team and McDonald is more full-court pressure and just changes your tempo.
“You don’t really get to run any offense,” Miller said, “It’s just a press breaker and that’s it. Both are different but each in their own right does things well.”
The Raiders (7-0, 2-0 Inter-Tri County League Red Tier) were crisp in disrupting the Rebels’ offense as they were solid in trapping ball screens and being nearly flawless in their help-side defense. It resulted in 17 first half turnovers.
“Our objective is to make people do things they’re not used to doing,” South Range coach John Cullen said. “We try to take them out of one or two things and make them beat you without their best stuff.
“We tried to take them away from getting to the rim and make them uncomfortable,” Cullen said. “We tried to turn more guys into passers. The more people that have to handle the ball usually that results in more turnovers.”
Those turnovers resulted in 19 layups for South Range in which the Raiders made 18 to methodically build a 23-7 lead after one quarter and a 45-13 advantage at the half.
“That’s definitely them hitting shots they need to hit and it also comes down on us needing to reduce turnovers,” Miller said. “Not only does it help you, but it takes away those easy scoring opportunities.
“Those shooting percentages get inflated by the fact you are turning it over and allowing them to lay it in at a very high clip,” Miller said. “That was the case Tuesday and I know we had too many tonight.”
The Raiders shot 21-of-19 from the field in the first half and were led by Brandon Young’s 17 points and Brady White’s 12 points.
“Brandon is a lightning bolt that you let out of the bottle once in a while,” Cullen said. “He’s a good transition player. He’s been shooting the ball better lately.
“We try to pass up good shots for great shots,” Cullen said. “We tried to get the best shots we can get and different teams give you different things. If have to figure it out as we go. If it’s not broke, we don’t fix it.”
The Rebels (0-6, 0-1) were limited in much of what they could do offensively with just 16 field-goal attempts in the first half and overall just 33 percent shooting from the field.
Add a young inexperienced team that hasn’t really gotten any breaks after playing their third unbeaten team within their first six games and it’s easy to see the early season growing pains.
The Raiders held the Rebels complete lineup to single digit scoring with Wyatt Woodring leading the Rebels with eight points,
“Our defense is kind of what we’ve been hanging our hat on,” Cullen said.