Ten Best: Central Catholic vs. McCutcheon
When you come up against the defending 4A State Runner-up who barely lost anything, it is going to be a tough battle. However, Central Catholic, even after being down 21-5 in the first quarter, they still battled back and made…
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Continue ReadingWhen you come up against the defending 4A State Runner-up who barely lost anything, it is going to be a tough battle. However, Central Catholic, even after being down 21-5 in the first quarter, they still battled back and made things a little harder for McCutcheon in the second quarter. At the end, though, the Mavericks looked like one of the best teams in the state and got their second victory of the season over Central Catholic, 82-38.
MVP: Robert Phinisee (McCutcheon)
Wasn’t going to put him here when it was halftime. At the break he had only 6 points and was 2/10 shooting. However, he absolutely dominated the second half and pretty sure he scored 11 straight points for McCutcheon in the third quarter. He didn’t have to be great tonight for his team to win but he does so many of the little things to set up his teammates that even in that first half when he didn’t have it going, he was getting rebounds, steals, and dishing out assists. With the way this team plays, he has to make assists a priority because they can shoot the ball. He is at the head of all of that and he showed why tonight.
Play of the Game: Carson Barrett (Central Catholic)
The play of the game came early and while it didn’t result in a bucket for Central Catholic, it was still very impressive. Barrett, the 6’3 freshman, was bringing the ball up the floor and went behind his back to elude a defender with a hard cut to his right. Then, he went a step later and had a hard, two-hand overhead pass to a shooter in the corner who was wide open. Most players at the high school level can’t make that play and when you factor in that he is just a freshman, it is really impressive.
Best Offensive Performance: Haden Deaton (McCutcheon)
Almost went with Phinisee here but he really struggled in the first half and the numbers don’t look near as clean as Deaton who went for 17 points on just 9 shots. He went 5/9 from the floor and 4/6 from behind the arc. He was on it early knocking down some big threes and had a really tough drive to the rim. Funny to see how his game has progressed from a guy who was overwhelming driving to the rim to a knock down shooter from three.
Best Defensive Performance: Haden Deaton (McCutcheon)
Tonight, you saw a really good team play really good defense. Central Catholic is pretty disciplined but still turned the ball over 12 times. At the top of most of that was senior wing Haden Deaton. He had 8 rebounds, 6 coming on the defensive end, to go along with a pair of steals. His energy on the floor is what really helps to drive the teams play and others feed off of it. Tonight, it was Deaton but really it is this entire team.
Best Guy Off The Bench: Tyler Power (Central Catholic)
The benches in this game really didn’t factor in a ton. The starting lineups are too strong for both of these teams but we did see Power for Central Catholic step in and have some success. The 5’9 senior guard came in Central Catholic 5 points but also gave them 17 minutes with only 1 turnover. In a game where possessions were coveted, having a guard step in and not hurt the team was just as big as the point total.
Best Intangibles: Ben Tharp (Central Catholic)
Tharp was really the only player for Central Catholic to really get going offensively. He finished with 15 points, the only player on their team in double figures. Outside of that, it was a lot of the rebounding and key play making in the second quarter that helped bring Central Catholic back into the game a bit. Central Catholic matched McCutcheon in points that quarter and Tharp was doing a lot of that work for them.
Best Under-The-Radar Performance: Gavin Dunbar (McCutcheon)
Coming into the game, you weren’t sure what kind of depth you were going to get from McCutcheon. You had the top three of Collins, Phinisee, and Deaton but beyond that, it was really a lot of unknowns. Dunbar came in to give them another shooter and when Phinisee was missing shots in the first half, Dunbar more than made up for it. He had 13 points as the half hitting 3/5 from beyond the arc.
Best Underclassmen: Carson Barrett (Central Catholic)
There aren’t many freshman that I’ve come across that don’t score a lot of points but still really impress you. Carson Barrett does just that. His passing is at a high level and sees the floor as well as you could possible expect. Those two things make him really good. Add in that he is 6’3, a coaches son, and actually not too bad of a scorer, and you have the makings of a really good player in the class. Very impressed.
Best Stat Of The Game: MCC Assist/TO Ratio
The best stat of the game was McCutcheon’s Assist-to-Turnover ratio. They were 11/3 on the night. They only had three turnovers the whole game. It seems reasonable but the reality is they play such a fast tempo that even the good teams are that play that fast are going to turn it over quite a bit but will sacrifice that because their offense is so high powered that more possessions means they can put up more points and a few extra turnovers doesn’t matter. For McCutcheon, with only three turnovers, that is really impressive when you think that they didn’t even play all that well.
Best Storyline To Watch: The one thing that I want to see is how do the other players on this McCutcheon team do the rest of the year. If they are going to repeat, they need to have quality depth and while tonight they were really good, you need to see that consistency. If they have that, then this team really can make a run because they were great even with Phinisee having a ton of misses early and then Deaton falling off a bit in the second half. This team is good with a chance to be great.