With his team trailing by 14 points early in the fourth quarter, Perryville boys basketball coach Chris Johnson had a simple message for several of his top players who began the final period on the bench. "We can win this game if you get your heads right," Johnson told them. They did both. The Panthers outscored North Harford 21-1 in the fourth quarter to prevail 50-44 Monday night, January 29. "It was a little bit stressful being down but we just knew we had to fight back, just play basketball like we always do," Perryville forward Dayvon Montz said. Down 43-29 entering the final frame, the Panthers embarked on a 15-0 outburst, keeping the Hawks off the board until the final minute. "We got out on their three-ball and we played a lot stronger defense," Montz said. "We just started moving the ball and playing Perryville basketball." Perryville tied the game on two free throws by Emarion Hampton with two minutes to go. The Panthers' freshman point guard then made a free throw 39 seconds later to put the Panthers ahead 44-43. North Harford's only point of the quarter came on a game-tying free throw with 55 seconds remaining. After grabbing an offensive rebound, the Hawks missed the front end of a one-and-one. North Harford committed a foul during a battle for that rebound, and Timmy Clark hit two free throws to give Perryville the lead for good. The Panthers made four of six free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the deal. "We usually start a little bit slower and fight our way back toward the end of the game," Montz said. "I'm not really sure why but I hope we can start coming out strong in the beginning of games and have a full game through. I think some of our guys come out with pre-game jitters and that goes away." North Harford led 28-20 at halftime. "They ran a really good man offense" Johnson said. "We started off in man [defense]. We were getting picked off and they were getting some easy layups. But at the same time, we were also forcing turnovers out of man so it was kind of a double-edged sword. Just to save their legs, and they're more comfortable in that 3-2 [zone] so went 3-2 and [North Harford] started hitting threes. And that hurt us so we went back to man and they started picking us off again and getting some easy shots. So in the second half, I told them, 'Look, the bottom line is we've got to move. If you want to play that 3-2 we've got to move. We cannot give them an open look. That's their game. And we've got to deny the entry pass.' We were a lot more effective in the second half once we went back to the 3-2 and taking away what they do best." Johnson instructed his team to play defense the way North Harford had performed for the first three quarters. "One time I pointed to the way their team was playing defense," the Panthers' coach said. "They were really intense, moving real quick, real alert. We just needed to pick it up another level and we did that. And it was nice. Even though I don't want to be in a situation where we're down 14, but at the same time it's nice to see these guys able to come back. It showed their heart and the fact that they can turn it on. But we need to be a team that plays four full quarters. Typically, we're a good third quarter team. We did not have a good third quarter. We could not close the gap in the third quarter. I'd rather be a fourth quarter team to be honest." JV PHOTOS VARSITY PHOTOS
Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2018
|