Five Takeaways: Taft vs. Deer Park
The 2nd game of the Play by Play Classic featured two teams are among the best in the state in their divisions and whose styles kind of mirror each other. Defending D-III state champs Deer Park and Taft pressed and…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe 2nd game of the Play by Play Classic featured two teams are among the best in the state in their divisions and whose styles kind of mirror each other. Defending D-III state champs Deer Park and Taft pressed and ran there way to one entertaining game, with the Senators coming out on top 78-67, snapping the Wildcats 31 game win streak.
Deer Park started out fast going up 13-2 early in the 1st quarter, helped by a quick start from guard Steve Gentry Jr. (PHO #72) who scored 6 points early. But Taft stayed the course and went on a 10-4 run to end the 1st quarter with Deer Park holding a 17-12 lead. But as the 1st half went on the passing, shooting and depth of Taft started to wear on the Wildcats and behind the hot shooting of junior guard Mohammad Metz the Senators rallied back to take a 35-33 lead into the half.
And those things that helped the Senators take the lead into the half continued to help them extend the lead throughout the 2nd half. They continued to beat the Wildcats press with the pass which lead to Metz, DeMarco Bradley and Romello Carleon knocking down multiple three-pointers each. And when that wasn’t happening the tandem of Nekhi Smith (2020 PHO #17) and senior Chris’seon Stringer were finishing in the paint, at times with aggression.
Smith lead the Senators with a 20-point, 4 rebound performance while Stringer and Metz both finished with 13 points each. Senior forward/center Cleveland Farmer, who is also Taft’s QB, finished with 11 points. 2019 forward Ibrahima Athie (PHO #89) had a strong game for Deer Park finishing with 20 points and 6 rebounds in the losing effort. Florida International football commit Joseph Hocker recorded his third straight double-double to start the season finishing with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Five Takeaways
- The little things can make a big difference in a game with two evenly matched teams. And I say this because Taft did a much better job than Deer Park at advancing the ball with the pass instead of the dribble. This led to much easier looks for the Senators without a lot of dribbling while making the Wildcats defense move out of position on defense.
- The depth of the Taft roster was just to overwhelming for the Wildcats to overcome as well. The Senators had seven players record a point and play significant minutes while Deer Park played basically there starting five the whole game. And the two that played off the bench for Coach Steve Gentry played very, very limited minutes. That will have to change if the Wildcats hope to repeat as D-III champions.
- I was told growing up that the free-throw line is also known as the charity stripe because its free help or free points for the team. By my count Deer Park missed somewhere between 12-15 free throws, you cannot miss that many attempts from the line and expect to win.
- The momentum changing play of the game came at the buzzer to end the 3rd Chris’seon “Grown Man” Stringer took the inbounds pass coast to coast then took off over Wildcats C Joe Hocker for a grown man dunk as the clock struck zero to end the quarter. This was the play that gave the Senators all the momentum and set them up for a big 4th quarter.
- It was not one of the better games for junior Mark Wise (PHO #16). He forced a lot of deep three-point attempts and did not look to make the correct basketball play on dribble drives. There were times when he was going for the home run when all he needed was a single to use a baseball analogy. He can be an elite play-maker, and he must use that ability more when the opportunity presents itself.