Appo-23 Smyrna-29 @ the half. Smyrna came out the gates strong behind Matthews' quick 5 pts & a Worthy dunk. Matthews followed up later in the half w/ a 4-pt play & Smyrna got out to a 27-12 lead but Appo went on a run led by Cale & Alexander to close the half.
Appo - Smyrn
- Thread starter J12
- Start date
Smyrna won by about 13 or 14. Smyrna was clearly the better team & a few times it looked they were gonna blow Appo out of the gym but Appo made a couple runs to make it closer. Smyrna owned the boards & was the more physical team...their Big 3 of Worthy, Matthews & Garnett will be hard to beat. First time seeing Cale this year & he did about what I expected using his athletic ability to get to the rim but I don't think he hit 1 jumper tonight. Appo's Alexander played well & hit a few 3s too. I sat right behind Appo's bench & I'm pretty sure they only played 6 players all night.
Smyrna will have to really tighten up their act if they expect to beat MP. They had control of the game most of the way, but throughout the 4th quarter they continually tried to let Appo back in it. Firing up 3's when they should have been milking the clock, forcing passes that were totally unneccessary, etc. Should have used a couple timeouts to stop Appo runs, but didn't. Appo made their own mistakes too, but Smyrna needs to be smarter to play with Mount. They have the talent to beat anyone, but they must be smart.
My one knock on Smyrna tonight was no timeout during the 11-2 run @ the end of the 2nd quarter before halftime & no timeout on the other run when Worthy left the game. As for the milking of the clock when you have the lead I have said this repeatedly...the problem I have w/ that @ the high school level is that the team behind becomes the aggressor while the team winning loses momentum while trying to stall which often a leads to turnovers & easy baskets & dunks if you are Myles Cale. I'm all for being more patient but I feel as though you still need to take what the defense gives you so if you can score then do so but preferably easy buckets. Smyrna was a prime example of that tonight turning it over against Appo's trap in the 4th quarter...too many times I have witnessed teams let teams back in the game when trying to stall @ the high school level taking their foot off of the gas. It just seems like a lot of the teams stall ball ends in turnovers so while I would like to milk the clock some w/ a lead I would also want to stay attack-minded if we handle that.
I agree with this. Smyrna was by far the better team. But every time it looked like they were going to put it away they got sloppy. Bad decisions against the press. Forced shots when they needed to be patient. Garnett launched a couple 3s from college range. The coach should have pulled him for that. You don't need freshman mistakes in a tournament game. Worthy settled things down with 3 straight buckets. They can't make these mistakes and beat Mt Pleasant.
BTW, the more I see Worthy the more I see him as 1st team All State.