Five Themes: Webb Feet vs. North Meck
PHOTO CREDIT: ALLEN GREENE BRISTOL, TN — Saturday evening North Meck stepped on the Webb Feet immediately, and despite their gritty commitment Webb-Bell Buckle never clawed their way back to within 10 points again. North Meck won the contest, 82-66…
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Continue ReadingPHOTO CREDIT: ALLEN GREENE
BRISTOL, TN —
Saturday evening North Meck stepped on the Webb Feet immediately, and despite their gritty commitment Webb-Bell Buckle never clawed their way back to within 10 points again.
North Meck won the contest, 82-66 and it was only that close because of Webb’s persistent climbing of the mountain. A lesser team would have lost by 30 in this contest.
Here are five themes that emerged during their game.
Star Power
North Meck runs out two wonderful guards (Trayden Williams, Tristin Maxwell). Combined they scored 24 points in the first half alone. Trayden is signed to Robert Morris, a D1 school in Pittsburgh and Tristin is signed to Georgia Tech. Their outside shooting was both staggering and consistent. The story of the game truly was the sharpshooting of these two star guards.
Trayden finished with 22 points on 10-15 shooting and they were not simple layups. He hit HM pull-ups and left defenders with a quick stutter. Tristin also recorded 22 points in a slightly foul-limited affair.
Team Rebounding
Without Keon Johnson, and largely without a frontline of any note, the Webb Feet are only successful against good teams if they rebound together. It is a challenge, but a challenge that must be embraced. Early in the game North Mecklenburg collected an offensive rebound through hustle and power.
“That can’t happen,” shouted Webb Feet Head Coach Jeff Mitchell towards Alex Garrett. Garrett put his hands up, but he knew what his coach meant. All forwards must be boxed out all the time just for Webb to be in the game. North Meck was and is just too big and too good to allow them second bites of the apple.
Khi Harris tried to tip an offensive rebound to his teammate. The ball squirted out of bounds, but the idea wasn’t wrong. It really became a ‘by any means necessary’ approach against North Meck.
Mid-Air Magician J.J. Platt
J.J. Platt continues to be a fantastic leaper. In the game of basketball there are plenty of high-fliers. What makes Platt different and better than many of those jumpers is that he makes creative decisions mid-flight.
Late in the third quarter, with the scoring gap up to 20 points, Platt deflected a outlet pass, scurried to recover it before the ball landed out of bounds, and then unexpectedly for the defender elected to attempt a side-rim dunk. Platt’s explosiveness caught the whole gymnasium off guard though he did slam it off the rim. His teammate recovered the miss and drew a foul.
Platt forced defenders to foul constantly. His bravery in tight spaces created problems and defenders elected late fouls as opposed to “allowing” the shot attempt.
Unsigned guard J.J. Platt scored 32 points on 8-18 shooting and earned 18 free throw attempts. Further, Platt recorded 10 rebounds with 4 assists and 4 steals.
Paint Problems
Scoring in deep was just incredibly difficult for the extremely athletic and hungry penetrators of Webb-Bell Buckle.
26-13 North Meck defending the paint fantastically. Webb Bell Buckle is losing confidence and it is spilling over onto the defensive end.
Really rough spot midway through 2Q.
3 for Jordan Jenkins!
28-16.— Prep Hoops Tennessee (@PrepHoopsTN) December 28, 2019
Webb’s star guards love to get into the paint and punish defenses. North Meck played their defense straight up in the paint and didn’t reach too much. They didn’t whack down on the ball and helping guards created enough distraction to make shots in close lower percentage attempts.
Final Word
North Meck is a balanced team with elite scorers at nearly every position. Webb is scrappy and will win plenty of games this season with talent and sheer will. North Meck is a team that is insurmountable for almost every team in the state of Tennessee and despite Webb’s ferocity and speed they were insurmountable for them too.
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