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Boys basketball: Operation lockdown: East puts clamps on Marcus in blowout win
By Justin Thomas, Jthomas@starlocalnews.com
FLOWER MOUND — Over the past three years, fans of Marcus’ boys basketball team have gotten accustomed to seeing stellar defensive efforts.
It’s just the Marauders were typically the squad doing the stifling.
Friday in a non-district contest against Plano East, it was the Panthers who shut down Marcus, limiting the Marauders to 28 percent shooting in a 65-30 victory.
“We did a good job,” said Jeff Clarkson, East head coach. “We talked about what we wanted to do coming in and we accomplished that. I feel like we’ve been right there on defense for a little while now and offensively we did a better job of being patient and working for good shots. We have to keep defending like that and bringing that offense around.”
After claiming a 16-8 lead after the first quarter, East held the Marauders off the scoreboard for the first 7:10 of the second quarter and took a 30-11 lead to the break. The Panthers also blanked Marcus for the first 3:25 of the third quarter as they continued to pull away.
“We knew they were pretty talented,” said Clay Cody, Marcus head coach. “They have the type of talent that can get to Austin. They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect them to. They pressured us. They trapped us. They out-rebounded us and forced us into tough shots. We didn’t shoot the ball well, for sure, and we turned it over. We probably did everything they wanted us to do.”
Jarvis Pugh paced East with a game-high 13 points, while Xavier Smith followed with 12. The two combined to miss just one field goal, with Pugh converting all three of his 3-point attempts. Sawyer Kipp and Zach Smith chipped in eight points apiece for the Panthers, who had 11 different players score.
East also outrebounded Marcus, 28-24.
“We only gave up five offensive rebounds, which was nice,” Cody said. “But then again, they weren’t missing a whole lot.”
Early on, East had its way with Marcus in the paint, using multiple blocks and steals to spark their transition offense.
“I thought we pushed the ball on rebounds and taking transition when it was there and setting things up when it wasn’t,” Clarkson said. “It was nice. When you play hard like that and get after it and get a lead, you can kind of relax a little bit.”
The court opened even more in the second half as the Panthers scored on a variety of dunks and fast-break layups. East’s penetration also earned them 22 trips to the free-throw line, where they converted 11. Marcus struggled at the stripe as well, knocking down just 4-of-11.
“We talked about attacking the rim and going at them, but we didn’t do a real good job at that stuff,” Cody said. “I keep going back to this stuff. We shoot 28 percent from the field and we avoid contact when we go inside. It goes back to a lack of experience.”
Michael Mayhew matched Elias Haas for a team-high six points for Marcus. Haas also led the Marauders with five rebounds. Mayhew’s six came on a pair of long-range connections. However, he only managed to attempt three 3-pointers.
“We talked about [Mayhew] he was there really good shooter on film and he hit a couple in the first half,” Clarkson said. “We talked at halftime about shutting him down and to quit letting him get open. We did a good job overall.”
On Tuesday, the Marauders came up short in a non-district contest against McKinney Boyd, 46-27.
The Marauders trailed by just five points entering the final quarter but were outscored by the Broncos in the fourth, 17-3. Marcus trailed at halftime, 19-17.
Holden paced the squad with 12 points but no other Marauder had more than five. Boyd, meanwhile, displayed its depth with 11 players scoring, including eight apiece from Martez Butler and Zach Rubel.
Marcus resumes its non-district schedule Thursday-Saturday at the Plano Wildcat Holiday Classic. The Marauders received a first-round bye and open the tournament at 8 p.m. Thursday against the winner between Wylie East and Jesuit.
“We’ve been focusing on everything,” Cody said. “Rebounding. pressure, running our offense. We’re like the little kid trying to put his finger on the cracks on the dam. But we’re running out of fingers and ways to plug holes right now.”
East continues at 1 p.m. Thursday against Richland in the first round of the Orange Bracket at the Whataburger Tournament at Birdville’s Thomas Coliseum.
“I feel good about where we’re at,” Clarkson said. “We’ve gotten better each game and all of this is for district. We have a great test in the tournament and the bracket we’re in has top 10 teams all over it.”
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