Pioneer Boys Force 21 Turnovers In 53-48 Win Over James Wood

Posted: January 24, 2015
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Normally, when a team makes only 4 of 22 field goals in a quarter, it’s too much to overcome.

In the case of the Millbrook boys’ basketball team, that 4-of-22 shooting performance against James Wood happened during a quarter that was technically the best of the night by either team.

Millbrook outscored James Wood 13-9 in the third quarter by holding the Colonels to 4-of-14 shooting, forcing five turnovers and battling them to a draw on the glass (11-11) to take a four-point lead into the fourth quarter, and the Pioneers held on for a 53-48 win in Casey Gymnasium to complete a sweep of their Northwestern District and Frederick County rivals.

Friday’s game wasn’t a stellar one on the offensive end by any means for Millbrook (15-2, 6-0 Northwestern). The Pioneers only made 19 of 65 shots (29.2 percent).

But when you can play defense as well as Millbrook does on a consistent basis, it can cover any number of problems. After forcing 25 turnovers in a 74-49 win over James Wood 10 days prior, the Pioneers forced 21 Friday night in a game in which the first, second and fourth quarters saw a difference of just one point between the teams in each of them.

“Our main focus is defense, and playing hard on the defensive end constantly,” said Millbrook senior guard Zach Harrell, who scored a game-high 19 points. “It’s our bread-and-butter. A lot of our best games, we force over 20 turnovers. If we ramp up our defense, we’re going to be successful.”

The Pioneers needed to be on their game defensively, because James Wood (5-9, 0-5) gave Millbrook everything it had.

Though the Colonels definitely struggled with the Pioneers’ traps and press, they did well to break the Pioneers’ defense at times with some strong passes, particularly in a first half that ended with the score tied at 26-26. (Millbrook played the entire second quarter without Trey Braithwaite because of foul trouble, and the entire first half without Chris Oates, the team’s second-leading scorer at 15.8 points per game, for disciplinary reasons.)

James Wood also worked hard to get to the basket at every opportunity it could, and the Colonels (39-34 edge in rebounds for the game) also attacked the glass with aggression.

“We played them tough, a lot tougher than last time,” said James Wood senior forward Brady Hepner (eight points). “We knew they were going to press, and we handled it pretty well at times. But the thing is we just turned the ball over a little too much.”

The Colonels only trailed by one after Chandler Brooks (game-high 13 rebounds) hit a 3-pointer with 4:46 left in the third quarter to make it 32-31, but James Wood only managed one basket in the next three minutes and 52 seconds.

And while Millbrook wasn’t getting much on offense, the Pioneers routinely made plays when they needed to and kept the Colonels at bay.

Harrell penetrated the lane to draw a couple defenders and dished to junior Taryk Baylor (18 points, seven rebounds) to the right of the basket, and Baylor muscled a shot up and in while being fouled and hit the ensuing foul shot to make it 39-33 en route to taking a 39-35 lead after three quarters.

Up 42-38, a Millbrook trap in the James Wood front court forced a wild pass that went deep in its backcourt, and Jordan Funk (seven points) scooped up the loose ball and laid it in with 5:44 left.

The Colonels got to within four again at 46-42 with 1:43 left, but they missed a 14-foot jumper shortly thereafter. The Pioneers scored five straight points and James Wood was never closer than five the rest of the way.

For James Wood coach Tim Wygant, he’s hoping that the Colonels will eventually start playing a little more efficiently. He was glad James Wood limited Millbrook’s transition points from its turnovers after struggling with that in the first matchup, but he said the Colonels ultimately need to take better care of the ball if they want to be successful.

“Credit to Millbrook’s defense,” said Wygant, who was led by Jacob Potter (12 points) in scoring Friday. “Their defense was good. They’re extremely physical, and their guards play with a tremendous amount of instinct. They’re extremely opportunistic and they pursue the ball extremely well.

“But I’ve been telling these kids for the past couple of weeks, as soon as we clean up the turnover part of it, and that comes with experience, we’re going to be a very difficult team to beat, because we’re in it all the time. We fought hard tonight.”

Millbrook coach Derek Butler said the Pioneers definitely could have played better, even on defense, because of how the Colonels broke their traps in the second quarter. But he’ll take the win.

“This is game that last year, maybe we’re not ready to win these types of close games,” he said. “This year, the guys have really developed a way to perform well in these games, and it’s key that when we have a lead at the end that even our bigs can handle the basketball.

“We can spreads teams out and pull them away from the basket because they have to pressure us, and we can attack the seams off that.”

Millbrook is 4-0 and James Wood is 1-2 in Conference 21. However, it was the first game between the two that counted toward the conference standings, not Friday night’s game as previously reported.

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