Five Defining Strategies: Antioch-Hillsboro
The Monday night matchup of Lavric Mangala (PrepHoops #94) Donald Fitzgerald (PrepHoopsTN #27 in 2019) pitted two 12 AAA teams against each other.
A sloppy, turnover-riddled affair ended 46-40 Antioch. The Bears are now 8-1 in 12AAA after a 46-40 win at Hillsboro (3-4).
Moving Wild
Hillsboro and Antioch both had some trouble getting the ball up the floor early. The Bears are definitely one of the quickest teams in Nashville. Though they are small, the hands and feet move fast.
Antioch guards (Mangala, Ibrahim Nasir, Jaylen Morgan) recorded plenty of deflections in the opening quarter.
As Hillsboro settled down the game cleaned up. The Burros comfortably moved the basketball into the final quadrant. This should be a routine procedure, but it definitely took 4-5 minutes to figure out.
The guard-driven Bears made a frustrating amount of fourth quarter mistakes. Most of the Bear possessions prematurely ended in turnovers or charges.
“Turnovers always come out of inexperience,” said Antioch Head Coach Casey Smith. “I had a lot of seniors last year. Each game we are going to have turnovers. We just want to make sure we limit those turnovers.”
Defending the Block
Donald Fitzgerald has some work to do refining his post attack, but on the other end Hillsboro’s big man deters plenty of looks.
Wonderful spin move by Lavric on the low blocks. Fitzgerald forced to foul. Fitzgerald also landed on Mangala. 27-24 Antioch leads, 5:16 3Q.
— Prep Hoops Tennessee (@PrepHoopsTN) January 30, 2018
The Bears kept finding the soft spot in the zone, passing their way into the logo.
“For some reason we see a lot of 2-3 zone,” said Coach Casey Smith. “The more we see it the more comfortable we get with it and it showed tonight.”
Unfortunately, the visitors often hesitated when they pushed the ball into the paint.
Hillsboro’s 2-3 zone allowed Donald Fitzgerald to hover in the paint. He blocked one shot in the first half and probably discouraged a couple attempts with his presence.
With few exceptions
Finding Donald
Hillsboro boasted a significant height advantage at most positions, most notably on the low blocks. With Donald Fitzgerald, the hosting Burros had a traditional back-to-basket big man. The 6-foot-8 center provided the Burros with a scoring option on the blocks.
Sadly it took about 6:30 of game action for the Burros to find Fitzgerald for a good touch. He attempted a powerful dunk. Though he missed Fitzgerald drew a foul and buried both free throws.
Anitoch searched for post defense all night and found the most success when they denied the entry pass in the first place.
Foul Officiating
In six months of covering high school players PrepHoopsTN never featured an officiating crew so prominently. Perhaps that is because no officiating crew featured so prominently in a contest.
Deep into the fourth quarter the officials made errors, aggressive errors like the time they whistled Fitzgerald for a slap on the hand of the shooter. Fitzgerald’s outstretched arms remained high throughout. He blocked the ball with his forearms. Both forearms.
The same ref whistled sophomore Ashenefe Desta with a travel on a routine pivot. There was no defense to obscure the clear view of Desta, who rotated his hips at the free throw line.
Bad calls and good calls alike result in free throws.
Line Work
With plenty of attempts at the stripe, Fitzgerald crafted together a decent scoring tally. He mad five of eight free throws and finished with seven points.
Lavric Mangala got all of his fourth quarter points from the line (8-11 FT’s) too. He finished with 20 points.
“He is a very smart player and how to work the court,” said Antioch Head Coach Casey Smith. “He did play more of a facilitator early and then he realized it was his time (in fourth quarter).”
Fourteen of Hillsboro’s final quarter points came from the free throw line. They made just four field goals in the entire second half.
Antioch plays at Hillwood Tuesday night.
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