Full-court press stymies Greyhounds in loss to South Milwaukee
SHOREWOOD -- The Shorewood Greyhounds varsity boys basketball team got off to a hot start Friday night, jumping out to an early 9-3 lead. But when the South Milwaukee Rockets began to run an effective full-court press, the young Greyhounds were unable to respond, losing their Woodland Conference opener at home, 75-68.
With a starting backcourt consisting of a freshman and a sophomore, Shorewood was unable to advance the ball past half court on many possessions, allowing South Milwaukee to score 23 second quarter points to claim a two-point halftime lead.
“I thought offensively we let their press disrupt us where it shouldn’t have,” coach John Hoch said after the game. “A little bit of that I’ll attribute to youth, but we’ve got to grow up in a hurry here if we want to start to be successful. We’ve got a lot of young guys who were playing middle school ball a year ago at this time. It’s a different game out there. We’re learning from this.”
One of those young players is freshman Austin Malone-Mitchell, who early in the game was penetrating to the basket in Hoch’s flex offense, creating open looks for teammates or drawing fouls. But as the game wore on, the Greyhounds began settling for early jump shots and getting away from what worked.
“They sagged a little bit defensively, so we didn’t have patience,” Hoch said. “So if we didn’t have the first drive, we settled for a jump shot. I remember one particular point where I think there was about a five-minute stretch where first pass we settled for a jump shot right away. And the two drives we took, we never reversed the ball; first drive we went in and forced up a shot.”
Malone-Mitchell finished with 13 points and one eye-catching play in the second quarter when the freshman drove to the hoop and delivered a swift around-the-back no-look pass to sophomore Deion Jackson-Body, who connected on the open three-point shot.
“He’s a very talented player and he has confidence in himself,” Hoch said of his freshman guard. “And it’s a quiet confidence. I think that the guys are developing
confidence in him and they’re recognizing that as well. He’s got a chance to be a special player.”
Entering the third quarter down by two, Shorewood started the second half in a similar fashion as the first, rolling off a quick 7-1 run to re-claim a four-point lead. The Rockets responded, finishing the quarter on a 20-8 run to take an eight-point lead into the fourth.
“High school basketball has intensity for 32 minutes,” Hoch said, “and we’re going to need to learn to play for those full 32 minutes and not take series of. We’re going to have to learn to play 32 minutes, bottom line.”
Senior Chase Miller scored 10 of his team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough to prevent a 0-2 start to the season.
“We’re very down; very down with our mood,” Hoch said. “But what we need to do is, what we need to start to understand is, we’ve got to forget about that come tomorrow for practice.”
After dropping their first two games at home, the Greyhounds look to pick up their first win on the road next Tuesday, squaring off against divisional opponent Greenfield.
