EVERETT
Archbishop Murphy boys basketball coach Jerry Zander has stressed to his players that the key to their success this season is how they play defense.
The Wildcats took Zander’s words to heart in the second half of its Cascade Conference game against Lakewood.
Archbishop Murphy limited the Cougars to two free throws in the third quarter and then only four field goals in the fourth quarter en route to a 57-43 victory Jan. 12 at Archbishop Murphy High School.
“It was one of the best defensive games we’ve played,” Zander said. “We held them to four field goals for the whole (second) half and you’re not going to lose many ball games when you have that kind of defensive effort.”
The Wildcats (2-2 in the league, 4-7 overall) also had a balanced scoring attack with four playing in double figures. Sophomore J.D. Melton and junior Joey Clancy each tallied 14 points. Junior Jared Smith and senior Geoff Hunter each contributed 11 points.
“That’s who we are,” Zander said. “We don’t really have a star. We don’t have a guy who’s going to go out and score 25 or 20 points a game. We have four or five guys that are all capable of scoring in double figures. We are at our best when this happens — when four guys are scoring in double figures.”
The Wildcats are versatile on offense, according to Melton.
“Everyone shares the ball so well,” he said. “Anyone can go off at any time. It’s just fun to play with these guys.”
Archbishop Murphy, which defeated Coupeville 61-57 on Jan. 10 at home, already has matched last year’s number of league and overall victories.
“This year the whole (mindset) is just team ball,” Melton said. “We win as a team. We lose as a team. Our overall record isn’t that good right now but we’re fighting back. Everyone is playing really well. We all click really well.”
Archbishop Murphy’s two league losses to defending champion King’s and Granite Falls were by five and six points, respectively. The Knights and Tigers are regarded as two of the top teams in the league.
“I thought we played both of them very tough,” Zander said. “We lost two close games on the road to them, so it was nice to get a couple of home league games (Coupeville and Lakewood).”
The Wildcats came into the season with limited varsity experience and that inexperience showed at times with some poor decision making.
Zander sees plenty of room for improvement.
“I think as a group, I don’t think we’re nearly as good as we can be,” he said. “At this point, there’s still a big learning curve. There are still a lot of guys who don’t have a lot of varsity experience. They’re still learning some things and you saw some kind of mental errors late in the game tonight. Those things we have to work on, but I’m very pleased with their effort all around.”
Archbishop Murphy took a 14-11 lead into the second quarter but saw Coupeville rally to tie the score at 26 as the teams headed into halftime.
After Lakewood senior John Loucks made one of two free throws to again knot the score at 28 at the 6:02 mark, the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run to take a 38-28 advantage. Clancy had a pair of putback baskets.
A steal and layup by Lakewood’s Shane Holland cut the deficit to 38-30 at the start of the fourth quarter but a basket by Smith and a pair of free throws by senior Tony Ackerman boosted the Archbishop Murphy lead to 42-31.
Lakewood closed to 42-35 on four free throws by senior Ryan Boyce but the Wildcats responded with an 8-0 that extended the lead to 50-35 with just over three minutes remaining in the game.
“The biggest surprise right now has been offensively,” Zander said. “We’re much further along offensively than I thought we would be. I thought we would struggle a little more scoring. Scoring and offense hasn’t been the big issue. It’s been mostly defense and not so much stopping teams as we keep sending teams to the foul line.”
The Wildcats are outscored an average of 12 points per game on free throws. Those points would have made a difference in the team’s two league losses, Zander noted.
Archbishop Murphy didn’t foul as much in the second half as it did in the first half against Lakewood.
“We weren’t giving them easy baskets at the free throw line,” Zander said. “We were still giving some but not as much as we were in the first half.”
The help defense was much better in the second half, Clancy said.
“For example, when the ball gets thrown in the middle, two people jump on it instead of one person,” he said.
“It’s all about team ball and team defense,” Melton added.
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