Ten Best: Ruston 41, Fair Park 38
In what will likely be the last notable non-district game in the northern half of the state before the district grinds begins, Ruston beat Fair Park 41-38 in a battle of teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective…
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Continue ReadingIn what will likely be the last notable non-district game in the northern half of the state before the district grinds begins, Ruston beat Fair Park 41-38 in a battle of teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective classifications (Ruston in 5A, Fair Park in 4A).
This was my first time to see either team in any real detail and I got a lot from it, so let’s pass on the information to you.
MVP: Ruston’s Terrance Dodson. This boy is flat-out good. He scored Ruston’s first five points – one 3-pointer from the wing to stretch the zone a little bit, which he used to drive in between the two guards up top and get to the bucket for his second field goal – and came up with a chasedown block just a few possessions later. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the primary reason Fair Park quickly moved from zone to man in the first quarter, just to leave no doubt that someone is in his face when he touches the ball.
Play of the Game: Latreavin Black’s jam and staredown for Fair Park. Black drove the baseline with his left hand, skied up and threw down a vicious dunk in the first half. The rim was in between him and the Ruston bench, so as he landed after the dunk, he gave a mean staredown to the Ruston bench while pulling at the Fair Park on his chest. The dunk was impressive and the staredown after was just immaculate. (Ignore, for fun’s sake, that even after the dunk Fair Park was down by two.)
Best Off-the-Bench: Ruston guard Michael Mayfield. As I mentioned earlier, I think it’s entirely possible that Terrance Dodson was the reason for Fair Park’s switch from zone to man, but Mayfield probably played a part in that, too. He came off the bench and knocked down a pair of 3’s against the zone that helped Ruston lead for basically the entire first half.
Best Defensive Performance: Fair Park’s Torell Myles. Dodson and Mayfield did their bit in building a respectable early lead for the Bearcats, and Myles responded by basically erasing it in the second quarter. Ruston’s offense went on a drought early in the second primarily because it almost never had the ball – Myles created havoc around the ball for a pair of early steals that got Fair Park right back into the flow of things after the first quarter. It would be easy to see Ruston running away with this thing had Myles not created those turnovers – the Bearcats were feeling pretty good about themselves at the end of the first quarter.
Best On-Floor Adjustment: Ruston’s offense. Fair Park went back and forth between man-to-man and a 2-3 zone a few times throughout the game and the Bearcats were poised through it all. In the face of zone, the Bearcats were perfectly comfortable making 10-plus passes on every possession, taking up to or beyond a minute off the clock and working patiently to find a great shot. When Fair Park went to man, the Bearcats set crisp screens, made good cuts and moved quickly through the offense. To go seemingly flawlessly between those two modes of operation without extra coaching or a timeout in between impressed me.
Best Coaching Adjustment: Ruston’s defense after halftime. Fair Park’s mini-surge early in the second quarter made it much more of a battle at halftime than Ruston would have liked and, in my opinion, the only missing link was energy. Ruston came out of the locker room playing noticeably sound defense and I didn’t see any tactical changes made: the only noticeable things going on were more talking and more attention to detail. For example, any time a Fair Park ball handler picked up his dribble, Ruston’s off-ball defenders would close out on their mans before the on-ball defender could call out, “Dead.” Little things like that played a big role in Ruston hanging on for this win.
Best Underclassmen: Fair Park guard Javis Perot. The sophomore is part of a Fair Park team that, overall, I found to be pretty small, so his help defense proved to be quite helpful as Ruston dribble-drivers seemed to always have a ton of traffic to get through. Getting underclassmen to do little things like that consistently – even when they don’t result in blocks, as they almost never did against Ruston on this night – is a great place to start for building the future of a program.
Best Aspect of Environment: It’s been a long time coming for Ruston. The good thing about the abundance of non-district tournaments here in northeast Louisiana is that we have a habit of congregating the best teams in the area multiple times. The drawback? If your team isn’t hosting one of those tournaments, it can be quite a while before your first home game. That was the case, as the Bearcats had to wait until last night – a full 19 games into their season, according to MaxPreps – to get a home game. The Bearcats finally got one and the gym showed its excitement in pregame.
Best Story to Watch Going Forward: How high can Ruston rise? I wrote in the High Five earlier this week about Ruston’s rise in the grand scheme of 5A, climbing all the way up to the top 10. This win over a solid Fair Park team (potential for top 10 in 4A, in my opinion) will certainly boost that rise, but the Bearcats will have a tough time keeping it up with teams like Natchitoches Central, Ouachita and West Monroe in the district. This is a team to watch in the coming weeks, without a doubt.
Best Two-Week Setup: Fair Park. Taking a loss like this right before district play begins is less than ideal, certainly, but the schedule gives this team time to recover. Its first two District 1-4A games are against Northwood and Minden, two bottom-half teams in the district, before ramping things up with Huntington, Woodlawn (Shreve.) and Bossier in consecutive games after that. Long story short: Fair Park has time to get its feet back underneath it before the going gets real tough.