Five Takeaways: Dulaney vs Friends
The Dulaney Lions played their second home game of the season last night after earning a win against Western Tech in their season opener last Friday. Friends came into this match up with a 1-3 record. When the final buzzer sounded, Dulaney won big by a final score of 86-35 to improve to 2-0 overall.
Here are five takeaways:
Dulaney’s starting five is overflowing with talent
The Lions have a starting lineup comprised of two very talented freshmen in Ryan Conway (11 points) and Ike Cornish (9 points). The lone sophomore, Che Evans Jr. (24 points), is one of the best scorers in the class of 2020, while senior leaders Josh Cornish (20 points) and Cameron Amoruso (13 points) make all of the winning plays that they’ve gained with their experience in their careers. Everything seems to work in sync with this group. Evans has the green light every time he catches the ball, Josh Cornish is the playmaker and calming presence as his role of coach on the floor for Head Coach Matt Lochte, Conway and Ike Cornish make plays consistently on both ends and Amoruso does all of the small things such as crashing the offensive boards and converting around the rim.
Che Evans continues to add to his game
Scoring is something that Evans can do in his sleep, but if he wants to become one of the best overall players of his class, doing things on the defensive end and being a presence on the glass is the next step of his development. Considering he is the tallest player in the starting lineup, he’s forced to man the paint and be a shot-blocker. In this particular game, he did both at a high level. He’s the back line of the Lions’ full court press, so he gets plenty of opportunities to make a play on the ball. When the 6’6 sophomore isn’t the one pulling down the rebound, he does a great job of sprinting the lanes as a wing or trailer. Cornish was able to find him in one of these situations for a lob that ignited the crowd.
Dulaney out to a 10-0 start. @jcornish79 assisting @CevansJr10 on the lob. @PrepHoopsMD pic.twitter.com/TQOgfRTGM3
— Colby Giacubeno (@ColbyGHoops) December 11, 2017
Jaden Derry has solid outing and shows some promise
Derry was one of the lone bright spots for the Quakers as he led them with 16 points. The sophomore guard did a nice job of getting into the paint with a jump stop and either finishing with a floater or kicking out to open shooters. He also did a solid job of utilizing pump fakes to get defenders off their feet and drawing fouls.
Josh Cornish will be a key piece for the Lions
As stated before, the Lions’ starting lineup is filled with young talent. They’ll throw a very active full court press at you and convert within seconds of turning you over. They play at an extremely high pace and while that benefits them in most cases, a team must be able to execute in half court play. Cornish is the calming presence for the Lions that understand when to push the ball and when to settle down and get into a set. Conway and Ike Cornish can also take on those duties, but considering this is their first year of high school basketball, they’re going to need time to understand pace.
Looking forward for Dulaney
Each game for this young Dulaney team is important. Conway, [Ike] Cornish and Evans will continue to improve as they get more comfortable with each other. They’ll face Archbishop Curley tomorrow night followed by Catonsville, Long Reach, Franklin and Oakland Mills. If they’re able to win all of those games, it’d mean they would be 7-0 going into a match up against the reigning 4a state champion Perry Hall Gators on January 3.