Five Takeaways: Beech vs. Station Camp
To capture the Beech Christmas Tournament Third Place trophy, Beech (7-8) won 57-51.
Station Camp (7-6) hung around most of the game and true separation took three-and-a-half quarters.
Station Camp and Beech will play each other three times this season, excluding any playoff clashes. Beech is the better team on paper, but the Bison are slowly improving under a young coach.
Attacking the Zone
Both teams played stretches in a 2-3 zone. In fact, Beech played zone most of the game. It worked…until it didn’t. The second unit did a solid job of denying the lane. Unfortunately for Beech Head Coach Kip Brown his starting guards completely relented over and over.
Station Camp got into the lane consistently. It didn’t even take crafty moves.
Ty Dean committed two early fouls, forcing him to sit early.
Some spurts of success did occur. Late in the second quarter Beech forced a errant pass from Jonathan Gillard Jr. after 45 seconds of invested defense. Early in the second quarter Jayson Brown and his teammate crunched the zone’s side, forcing Gillard Jr. into another turnover.
Station Camp did not really try the outside shot, which limited their proficiency against the Beech zone. Beech was more willing to offer. Station Camp played the perimeter of their zone a little more timidly.
For the Beech attack a lot of the success came from drawing fouls or Jayson Brown hitting outside shots. Ty Dean hit a couple important three-pointers too.
Rotation
Beech plays a lot of players. Coupled with their frequent full court pressure this can have a wilting effect on the opposition.
Broadly speaking this did not happen Friday night. Frequent fouls and turnovers erased any flow the game may have built. In real-time most of the game existed at the free throw line or on the walkway to the free throw line.
Slow pacing favored the undermanned Bison. It kept the game manageable.
Ultimately, the Bison did fall apart. Was this the result of Beech’s persistent defense? Maybe. Both teams did play three games in three days.
Beech pulled away after a nice fourth quarter scoring run.
Beech finally put a run together. 43-38 4:56 4Q. Turnaround by @Sorenson3 and steal/layup by Ty Dean.
— PrepHoopsTennessee (@PrepHoopsTN) December 23, 2017
Perimeter Breach
Just staggering. The Beech Buccaneers would convert a nice bucket with a slash or shot and then seconds later allow a Bison cakewalk deep into the paint.
The perimeter broke down immediately after a score over and over. The tight game didn’t need to be that way. Playing average perimeter defense would have ensured a comfortable Beech win.
PrepHoopsTN covered three Beech games this season and two of them featured lackluster perimeter defense. Smaller guards tend to probe and prod against Beech. If this continues, much of the Beech Buccaneer playoff hopes evaporate.
Closing Time
Securing win usually requires free throws. For all the defensive struggles of Beech and the abundance of tempo-draining whistles, the Buccaneers did hit their free throws late.
Beech-Station camp 4Q late! https://t.co/mSMQpuLqR6
— PrepHoopsTennessee (@PrepHoopsTN) December 23, 2017
All-Tournament Team
Justin Mcmurry (Station Camp)
Ty Dean (Beech)
Jayson Brown (Beech)
Jonathan Gillard Jr. (Station Camp)
One omission probably would be Mitchell Sorenson, who played well when Beech times were tough.