After his team dropped their regular-season opener to the Indian River Indians’ varsity basketball team 63-62, Milford Buccaneers’ head coach B.J. Joseph knew his young team was going to have to make some adjustments if they were going to win games this year.
He has no doubt in their skills or ability to play at the varsity level. Sophomore starters Marques Jones, Colby Shorts, Brandon Legrande and freshman reserve Shane Letthand nearly outscored the Indians by themselves, and dumped 60 combined points in a 74-61 road win on Jan. 8.
But the flipside of the coin is that Milford has a bad habit of making poor decisions at critical moments this season, which in turn caused them to blow big first half leads and ultimately lose three of their four games by three points or less.
To a point, Joseph said he expects “growing pains,” as he put it, from his young team. They’re going to make mistakes at times, but that proved not be the case in their win over the Indians on Jan. 8.
Milford made amends for their early-season gaffs and never trailed the Indians in the game. They headed into halftime with a 23-point lead behind a great team shooting percentage (20-37 FG, 54 percent) and then played to prolong offensive possessions during the second half in the hopes to keep Indian River from mounting a comeback.
Indian River (6-2, 5-2) earned their sixth win of the season in a barn-burning 88-51 victory over Stephen Decatur in this year’s Mason-Dixon Classic on Jan. 4 by sticking to a similar game plan. The only difference on Jan. 4 was that Indian River never slowed down offensively. According to Indians head coach Phil Mead, the key to winning those games was tempo.
“We played very well against Stephen Decatur,” Mead said. “We had very few turnovers (10) and controlled the tempo, and if you do that then you’re going to get wins.”
Indian River won the battle of tempo against Stephen Decatur, but lost to Milford, which he credited in their win.
“Milford played tough,” he added. “They came out very hot, shooting the ball very well and it got to the point where we were down by so many that it was going to be difficult for us to win.”
Indian River did, however, pull within eight points of the lead in the fourth quarter, behind some inspired play by senior forward Sean Lewis and timely shooting by senior guards Cory Myles and Tyree Oliver.
Lewis, who fell one assist short of his first career triple-double, finished the game with 10 points (5-8 FG) and recording game-high’s in rebounds (13) and assists (9). And when the Indians needed a surge the most, Lewis was the one who filled the most gaps, pulling down seven of his 13 rebounds (six defensive) and connecting on three of his nine assists in the fourth quarter. He also made both field goals attempted, including a coast-to-coast basket following a Jeremy Purnell-blocked shot to trim the Bucs’ lead to 11 with a little less than four minutes left in the game.
Oliver and Myles both hit key three-pointers, though it was Myles’ shot that pulled Indian River within striking distance, at eight points, with a minute and half left in the game. Unfortunately for Indian River, they were well into the free-throw bonus at that point in the game and were unable to make up any more ground.
Milford kept Indian River at arm’s length by successfully sinking six of nine fourth-quarter free throws.
“We’d melted down in the first game because it was the first game of the year and we’re so young. But now were learning to handle the pressure,” Joseph said of his Bucs.
Even up by 23, Joseph had a hunch Indian River would make a run at the lead, and to his delight, his players rose to the occasion and handled the pressure.
“Up 23 points, I knew they were going to make a run,” he said. “And to win a game where another team is trying to come back, it comes down to how well you fight back and handle their run.
“I told the boys that if they played with poise, then it would be almost impossible for [IR] to comeback,” Joseph concluded.
Mead, despite the loss, said he was pleased with his team’s effort as well.
“I was very pleased by the way we played in the second half,” he said. “We played with a lot of heart and never gave up.”
Purnell led all scorers with 27 points on 13-22 shooting from the floor, including making his only free throw to complete a three-point play in the second quarter, and pulled down 10 rebounds. He scored Indian River’s only points in the second quarter (seven points) and was responsible for 17 of their 28 first-half points.
Indian River will travel to play a revamped Smyrna basketball team tonight. Smyrna won the Southern Division and Henlopen Conference hands down, with an 18-5 record, last year but graduated top-10 scorers Darnell Cephas and Kevin Johnson.