Millbrook catches fire in second half against James Wood

WINCHESTER — Don’t cool off a hot hand.

Millbrook High School’s boys’ basketball coach Steve Grubbs liked what he was seeing from his second-half starters in Friday’s clash with James Wood, so he stuck with them.

And plenty of the Pioneers were hot.

Detric Brown, William Croyle, Tyler Seminaro and Ryan Liero torched the nets at points against the Colonels and each scored in double figures as the Pioneers pulled away for a 67-51 Class 4 Northwestern District victory at Casey Gymnasium.

Leading just 26-25 after a competitive first half, Millbrook (3-3, 1-0 district) outscored the Colonels by a 19-9 margin in the third quarter to take control.

Grubbs stuck with Brown, Croyle, Seminaro, Liero and Braden George for most of the period, which turned on an 11-2 run that took advantage of multiple James Wood turnovers.

“My philosophy ever since I got into coaching was a hot hand stays [on the court],” Grubbs said. “A hot hand might be scoring or playing defense. The kids that are playing well are going to get extended minutes and you have to make the most of the time you have on the court.”

With the Pioneers leading 28-26, Croyle’s three-point play triggered the key run. Brown had a pair of layups and Liero converted on a steal and layup before Croyle capped the outburst with a stickback that gave Millbrook a 39-28 lead with 3:32 left in the period.

“In the second half, our defensive energy was up compared to the first half,” said Croyle, who had nine of his 15 points in the period. “… Coming out strong and hard in the second half on defense forced turnovers and led to fastbreak layups and that’s our style.”

“In the second half, we played more excited and played harder,” said Brown, who led the Pioneers with 16 points. “Our defense was turning into our offense and we were getting a lot of transition points.”

The Colonels (0-3, 0-2 district) had eight turnovers in the quarter.

“I don’t know if our energy in the second half was impacted by the fact that the ball wasn’t going and those turnovers were happening,” James Wood coach Tim Wygant said of his team’s tough final two quarters. “It was really difficult to recover. We made a couple of adjustments that didn’t work out.

“It was fairly surprising,” he added. “We had a lot of live-ball turnovers in the second half and that is typically not characteristic of what we do. I don’t think they were applying a lot of ball pressure we can’t handle. I think it was more mental lapses, maybe mental fatigue on our part.”

Grubbs said the desired goal for the Pioneers’ defense isn’t necessarily steals, though they are a byproduct of what happens when his team is playing well defensively.

“When you make it difficult on people and you’re playing that stingy defense, playing aggressive and up on people … it’s so hard to get into a rhythm offensively,” Grubbs explained. “You get tipped balls. We talk about deflections more than steals. You start getting those and you get easy run-out layups and you are able to build that momentum.”

“When we’re running up and down the court, I don’t think anyone can really hang with us,” Brown said.

Leading 45-34 heading into the final quarter, the Pioneers never really let the Colonels make a run. The closest James Wood got was 48-37, but the lead stayed double digits for most of the period.

The Pioneers spread the ball around, getting eight points from Liero and four each from Croyle, Seminaro and Javell Holmes in the period. The lead ballooned to as large as 63-45 on Liero’s basket with 1:55 left.

Seminaro joined Croyle with 15 points and Liero, hampered by foul trouble in the first half, netted 13.

“We as a team don’t care who scores as long as somebody is scoring,” Croyle said of Friday’s balanced attack. “It’s nice to share the wealth on offense. As long as the ball is getting in the hoop and we catch a ‘W,’ it doesn’t matter who scores.

“When everybody is contributing and getting into it, we’re great,” Brown agreed. “We’re not an individual team. We’re a team that needs to build upon each other.”

James Wood’s Cole Stowers led all scorers with 20 points, while Josh Borromeo added 13.

Stowers was very consistent, scoring at least four points in each quarter. He nailed shots from long range and also on slashes to the basket.

“Cole is going to haunt me,” Grubbs said. “He’s a heck-of-a player. I know when he gets a hot hand, he gets a hot, hot hand.”

Stowers, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, played sparingly on a veteran team during the COVID-shortened spring season. He’s averaging 19 points in his two district starts this season.

“He’s always been an outstanding scorer, but he’s stepped into a more vocal leadership role this year which he didn’t have to do last year because we had eight or nine seniors,” Wygant said. “… He’s really embraced it. He’s a really good basketball player and we need to get all on the same page right now. When that happens we will be dangerous.”