Five Observations: Mt. St. Joe vs Boys’ Latin
Last night in The Smith Center located on the campus of Mt. St. Joe, two of the top teams in the MIAA A Conference went head-to-head. The battle of supremacy in the MIAA A Conference looks as if it’ll come…
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Continue ReadingLast night in The Smith Center located on the campus of Mt. St. Joe, two of the top teams in the MIAA A Conference went head-to-head. The battle of supremacy in the MIAA A Conference looks as if it’ll come down to St. Frances, Mt. St. Joe and Boys’ Latin. The Lakers were able to make a statement by going in and defeating the Gaels on their home floor by a final score of 69-61. With the win, Boys’ Latin improves to 19-3, while Mt. St. Joe falls to 14-4 overall.
Here are five observations from last night’s game:
Can Cam Spencer be guarded?
To be honest, there isn’t anything special about Spencer’s game. He isn’t going to ‘wow’ the crowd over with an array of ball-handling moves or soar through the lane and dunk on an opposing big. However what does make him special is his IQ and ability to just play the game the right way. He exposes a mismatch every time one presents itself, whether it is for him or a teammate. He uses a pump-fake on every catch to keep his defender guessing on when he’ll actually pull the trigger. He brings toughness to a team who has one player who is 6-foot-6 (with Spencer being the next tallest at 6-foot-2). Pair all of this with a deadly jumpshot, a much improved play-making ability with the ball in his hands and you’ll get an efficient 29-point performance against one of the best teams in the area. Spencer’s biggest impact was felt in the second quarter when he scored all of the 13 points for his team (he also out-scored MSJ as a team 13-10). Mt. St. Joe head coach Pat Clatchey tried every match up possible to slow Spencer down. Nothing worked. He was a man on a mission last night and when the final buzzer sounded, all of his boxes were checked.
James Bishop performs in front of his future head coach
LSU head coach Will Wade and his assistants were in attendance for last night’s game to check out their future guard in James Bishop. Bishop finished with a team-high 18 points, and though he struggled in the second half to get clean looks, he was lethal in the first two quarters. Bishop hit tough shot after tough shot. Whether he was operating in ball-screen scenarios or isolations, Bishop was rising over his defender and burying three’s. The 6-foot-2 guard finished with four triples for the game. When he wasn’t using the three-point line for target practice, he was breaking his man down off the dribble and finishing with touch in the paint. He didn’t have any trips to the free-throw line, but you could argue he could’ve at least drew three or four fouls that simply weren’t called.
A Sam Grace Detonation
Whenever you watch Boys’ Latin, you’re just waiting for Grace to get his share of three’s. In the first half, he had a couple of free looks from three, but wasn’t able to convert. Well, that all changed as soon as the third quarter started. The 5-foot-11 sharpshooter nailed five three’s in the third quarter alone to overwhelm the Gaels. I’m pretty sure in my 8-to-10 times seeing the Lakers, I’ve never seen Grace even attempt a two-pointer. Why should he? He can shoot it from the parking lot and the guards in Spencer, Cam Watts and Kendall Walker penetrate and create open shots for him. Opposing coaches have it set up to wear Grace’s match-up must be connected to him at all times, but with the range and speed he gets his shot off, it requires for a defender to be locked in literally every second of the possession. The Gaels lost Grace in transition multiple times in the third quarter, and he made them pay for it.
MSJ rallied late
The Gaels made one final push late in the fourth quarter, cutting the Lakers’ lead to 62-58. Tyler Brelsford and Ausar Crawley were key in that run as also was their full-court press. The Lakers’ eventually handled the pressure, but in the first few possessions of it, they turned it over and Mt. St. Joe capitalized. Brelsford showed aggression with the ball throughout attacking the rim and drawing a couple of fouls. He also made two three’s. Crawley bailed the Gaels out of a few busted offensive possessions with shots late in the shot-clock.
Nichols comes up big in the fourth
Jake Nichols has his hands full on a nightly basis considering he is the only big the Lakers have. He made key plays in the fourth quarter to help seal the win for his team, notably going 5-for-6 from the charity stripe when Mt. St. Joe was forced to foul. The 6-foot-6 junior finished with 14 points on the night and nine of them came in the final quarter. He limited Javonte Brown, who stands 6-foot-10, to just two points on the night and also kept him contained on the glass.