Pioneers pull away from Colonels, 83-62

February 1, 2012
By Robert Stocks

WINCHESTER- When Millbrook High School boys' basketball coach Scott Mankins was asked what's the best way to deal with James Wood's offense that fires 3-pointers and sends in a fresh five players every few minutes like a line change in hockey, the Pioneers coach summed it up with one word.

"Patiently," Mankins said.

The Pioneers didn't show a lot of patience in the first half, rushing shots and possessions which led to turnovers and sub-par shot selection.

But in the second half, Millbrook played more team basketball, getting multiple players involved in the offense and that helped the Pioneers turn a tie game at the half into a blowout.

Senior Donté Harris scored a game-high 18 points, leading four Pioneers in double figures as Millbrook pulled away for an 83-62 Northwestern District victory over James Wood at Casey Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

Mankins said his players didn't do a good job of executing the team's game plan in the first half. "Their system is as much as it looks like it's about what they do - it's what they try to get [opposing teams] to do," said Mankins, whose team moved into third place in the district standings. "If you try to match them, you're playing the way they want to play. You can't try to match them. You've got to play disciplined basketball."

Harris, who shot just 3 of 10 from the field for seven points in the first half, sparked a 12-0 run that pushed the Pioneers' lead to double digits midway through the third quarter.

Harris nailed a jumper to start the run, and then followed that with a rebound on the defensive end and then got the ball back for a driving layup on the other end to put Millbrook (12-5, 3-3 Northwestern) ahead 42-35 and force a James Wood timeout with 4:28 left.

After a layup by Eddie Trexler (off an assist by Harris), Harris buried a 3-pointer and then capped the run with another driving layup that stretched Millbrook's lead to 49-35 and forced another James Wood timeout.

The Colonels struggled from the field, shooting just 2 of 13 to start the third quarter, and Millbrook knocked down 7 of 8 from the field during the run.

By the end of the quarter, Millbrook nearly equaled its first-half scoring output (of 31 points) with 27 points to take a 58-44 lead.

"In the second half, coach [Mankins] said not to shoot as many threes and not settle as much and work the ball around to get layups and that's what we did in the second half," said Harris, who also added 11 rebounds. "With [Wood's] subbing you've got to make sure of who you have [defensively] so you don't get lost. They shoot a lot of threes, and we had to make sure we contest their shots."

Millbrook junior Cody Taylor scored 10 of his 16 points during the fourth quarter before leaving the game with an ankle injury in the closing minutes. Pioneers senior Boomer Kaczmarzewski added 18 points and eight rebounds.

Pioneer junior Rze Culbreath scored 14 points, but his 10 assists really set up his teammates for some quality looks in transition.

"We just needed to be patient, share the ball and not try to dribble through their traps," said Culbreath, who also had eight rebounds and eight steals. "For the first half, we were doing too much individual stuff but in the second half we were sharing the ball and playing as a team."

While the Pioneers scored 52 points in the second half, the Colonels struggled to get anything going.

James Wood (7-12, 0-6) cut the deficit to 10 twice during the fourth quarter, but the Colonels struggled to find their range and never cut the Pioneers' lead to single digits the rest of the way.

The Colonels shot just 32 percent (26 of 81) from the field, and struggled mightily from three-point range, hitting just 6 of 40 (15 percent) attempts. After going 5 of 21 from 3-point range in the first half, James Wood went cold, going just 1 for 19 in the second half.

"We lost our defensive intensity when our shots wouldn't drop and that was it," James Wood coach Al Smith said. "You can't do that against this team. You could see the guys once [Millbrook] passed it out of the trap we stood and watched instead of sprinting to a passing lane like we're supposed to do. But we didn't do it, and we just couldn't get anything to fall."

James Wood senior Chad Potter led the Colonels with 17 points.

Ryland Williams added 15 points, but left the game with 2:34 left in the third quarter with a dislocated finger.

James Wood junior Nick Foura was also injured late in the game. Foura drew a charge on Culbreath and fell hard to floor, landing on his back in the paint at the 3:37 mark.

After going to the bench, Foura re-entered and finished the game, but he left in an ambulance following the game.

Smith said he was unsure about the extent of Foura's injury, but said he was going likely going for precautionary X-rays.

"He took a really hard shot on the chest," Smith said. "He went back into the game, but I guess it kind of tightened up on him and it seemed like he might have been having some shortness of breath."

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