Long Reach boys basketball sticks to its preferred style to beat Marriotts Ridge, 77-64
Before every game Long Reach coach Andrew Lazzor writes that night’s keys to victory on a big whiteboard that he hangs in the locker room. The key that sits atop the list — “Play our style” — never changes.
On Friday night against visiting Marriotts Ridge, the Lightning style of relentless defensive pressure and pushing the pace offensively proved to be too much for the visiting Mustangs to overcome.
Long Reach jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and effectively held off every Mustangs charge the rest of the way, earning a 77-64 victory that continues the best start in program history.
“We talk about it all the time, we can’t let the other team dictate how the game is going to be played,” Lazzor said. “And these last few games we’ve really been doing a great job of pushing the pace and attacking the rim … that’s when we are at our best. We have our sets and we can get good shots that way too. But when we are active defensively, getting stops and then are able to run in transition, we’re very dangerous.”
RJ Barnes Jr. (25 points) and Jayden Saunders (20 points) led the way for a Lightning team (12-1, 7-1 Howard County) that has now won nine games in a row since losing to undefeated River Hill in December. The four county victories since winter break have all been by double digits.
Barnes, who kicked off the hot start Friday with a couple emphatic dunks in the first quarter, said the inspired play of late comes down to being locked in on the ingredients that allow this group to play its best basketball.
“We want to cause chaos,” Barnes Jr. said. “We like to play fast with traps all over the place, get the other team uncomfortable, and we definitely did that today to set the tone early.”
Marriotts Ridge (7-5, 4-3) was led by Jack Bonner (25 points) and Aaron Hammann (12). Bonner got the night started with an initial layup, but Long Reach’s trapping press soon took over.
The Lightning built a 20-11 lead by the end of the first quarter with more than half of those points coming in transition after Mustang turnovers. By halftime, the Lightning lead was up to 43-30.
Marriotts Ridge did force Long Reach to slow things down a little after intermission thanks to some effective zone defense. The more methodic pace, combined with some hot shooting from Bonner and tough finishes from Hammann, trimmed the deficit to as little as five points on three different occasions in the fourth quarter.
“We talked a lot about extending possessions, on both sides, to shorten the game a little bit,” Marriotts Ridge coach Seth Willingham said. “I don’t mind when we run if it leads to good shots, but when we run and take bad shots that plays right into their hands. A lot of their points in the first two quarters were either at the rim in transition or foul shots because of the transition.”
Two Hammann foul shots got Marriotts Ridge within 69-64 just under three minutes to play. From there, however, the Lightning closed the game on an 8-0 run.
Saunders finished a tough layup while being intentionally fouled to jump start the late surge and the team’s defense stepped up in crunch time.
“We had a couple timeouts in the fourth quarter where we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were good,” Barnes Jr. said. “We just had to settle down a little and get back to what we were doing earlier when we built our lead.”
In defeat, Willingham said he was proud of the fight his group showed.
“Win or lose, we had to use tonight to get better as a team and I thought we did. We competed,” he said. “We have to figure out a way to get ourselves moving a little quicker … that’s two straight games where we got off to slow starts. Aside from that, though, I thought we definitely gained some valuable experience against a good team.”
For Long Reach, this marks the best 13-game stretch to start a season the program has ever had. The 2006 Lightning state championship team lost twice in the first 10 games before never losing again, while last year’s group was 11-2 at this same point in the season on the way to finishing 21-3.
Lazzor said the lessons learned from last year, including falling short in the regional playoffs, is keeping this year’s group from getting ahead of itself.
“It’s hard not to compare groups, especially when we are trying to outdo last year’s group. And if nothing else, as a coach, you try to use some of that to keep us focused on each game,” Lazzor said. “We break the season into quarters and talk about where we want to be at the end of each of those. So far, so good.”
Long Reach 77, Marriotts Ridge 64
LR (7-1, 12-1): Barnes Jr. 25, Saunders 20, McKinney 10, Alston 8, Nunez 7, Best 4, Rosenfeld 3.
MR (4-3, 7-5): Bonner 25, Hammann 12, Whitaker 8, Willingham 6, Fricke 5, Bender 4, O’Brien 2, Kim 2.
Half: 43-30 LR.