St. Anne’s-Belfield’s boys basketball team is a wild collection of players who are instinctive scorers. Justin Taylor, Nick Reese, Mesiah Woods, Dalton Taylor and Malachi Poindexter are all capable of going and getting a bucket whenever their team needs it.
But they’re being asked to do things a little differently this year with an offense that’s designed to value a flurry of crisp passing that eventually creates a wide open shot. They’ve really started to find a rhythm with that approach in the last few weeks and it showed Friday in a 71-41 win over Covenant.
It helped that the Saints got going right out of the gate.
“We want to throw the first punch, not allow teams to get into their stuff, push the ball and attack,” Reese said. “Good things come out of it.”
Reese helped the Saints throw that first punch with nine first half points and it’s clear that when Reese is locked in and doing all the little things for STAB, they’re a better basketball team.
“Games like tonight where he’s near double figures but he also has four or five rebounds and four or five assists, four or five steals — when he’s that guy, he’s our most important player,” said STAB coach Damin Altizer. “He does so many of the little things well.”
That balanced, whoever is open should take the shot approach offensively in the half court led to a balanced output against the Eagles as Dalton Taylor and Mesiah Woods each notched 12 points with Woods burying a big time midrange jumper off the dribble to end the first half. Justin Taylor finished with 10 points as well. Ethan DeLaurier and Carter Lang finished with 10 rebounds between them while Lang had eight points and DeLaurier chipped in four.
“One of our big messages this year has been do your work for your teammates — attack the paint, do your work,” Altizer said. “We have so many guys that can score but if you do your work for your teammates, shots are going to come.”
STAB rolled past the Eagles with a 35-14 lead at the half that Covenant simply couldn’t climb out of despite 16 points from Jonas Sanker and 12 from Nic Sanker. Chaz Harvey knocked down a three early on but offense was hard to come by for Covenant.
STAB jumps back into Prep League play at home Tuesday against Woodberry Forest. The Eagles will try and bounce back at home against Fuqua Tuesday.
