Knights return to basics in 62-44 victory over Caps
GREENFIELD 62 BROUGHTON 44
By Jack Frederick jfrederick@wilsontimes.com
RALEIGH — What was it that was different for Greenfield in Monday’s 62-44 victory over Raleigh Broughton? If you ask senior guard Dji Bailey, the answer is simple.
“The biggest lesson I think we learned is to just play Greenfield basketball,” Bailey said. “Play our game, be composed on the offensive end.”
The Knights were scolded by head coach Rob Salter after a second-straight loss — 72-63 to Durham Academy — in the John Wall Holiday Invitational on Saturday. It was heeding those words and getting back to its roots that helped the Knights (16-4) avoid another loss, to the Capitals (1-10), in the seventh-place game, as well as an 0-3 showing in the tough David West Bracket.
Salter, by all accounts, was much happier with the performance he saw against the tournament’s host school, which springboards his program back into good standing before the start of 1-A/2-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference play against Greenville John Paul II Catholic on Friday.
“A little more like Greenfield basketball to me. I challenged our guys on Saturday after I thought was a lackluster effort for us,” Salter said. “I really challenged them and they came out and responded. That’s the team I know, that’s the team I love coaching.”
What Salter — and the fans who gathered for breakfast-time basketball — saw was a much-improved defensive effort that, at times, flummoxed the Broughton offense before a home crowd at Holliday Gymnasium.
Greenfield forced 22 turnovers out of the Capitals and allowed just 30% field-goal shooting for the game, locking down the host team’s top scorers and limiting Broughton to single-digit points in the first and third quarter — the crucial moments when the game was won.
“I challenged our guards to keep them out of the lane,” Salter said. “I thought we did a good job. (Will) Otto had zero (field goals), No. 20 Julien King didn’t score. We did a good job with their scorers and like I said, I got on them Saturday. I was tough, but these two guys responded I thought defensively.”
Truthfully, the lead had been taken for good in just the first minute of play. Broughton scored the first basket of the game, then the Knights went on a 12-0 run and captured their first double-digit lead on a basket from Bailey early. That deficit was never overcome by Broughton.
In the first half, the Capitals came no closer than four points of Greenfield. When play resumed after halftime, the Knights didn’t waste any time and led by defense again, holding Broughton to a minimum while scoring 10 of the first 12 points to put the game away — something Greenfield hadn’t done in the previous two games.
“As we opened the second half, we were still reasonably in the game,” Broughton head coach Clarence Coleman said. “But they had a strong performance in the third quarter that kind of took us out of it.”
At the start of the fourth, the Knights led by 17 points, but that lead quickly climbed into the 20s, where it stayed until Broughton closed out the game with nine straight points.
Coleman reported the Greenfield defense wreaked havoc on his offense unlike anything the young team had seen this season.
“Today, the game got away from us a little bit. I think it was a lot to do with Greenfield,” Coleman said. “They did some things defensively that we hadn’t seen much of, like trapping on the first pass, especially when you’re dealing with a young team. Even though we’re getting to the middle of the season here, we haven’t seen that a great deal. We had a little bit of trouble with that and that got us out of rhythm.”
After the game, Salter recited the cliche that defense leads to offense, but for Greenfield on Monday that seemed true. With defense creating more opportunities, Bailey flourished to lead the team with 16 points, many which came in the second half.
Jordan Lynch scored 11 points, adding three steals and four rebounds, while Trey Pittman brought down a team-high seven rebounds and added 10 points of his own in the paint.
The first two days of the John Wall did not go how Greenfield expected. The team had nationally ranked Raleigh Millbrook on the ropes Thursday and let the game slip away, then the Knights lacked the energy to beat Durham Academy on Saturday.
But the final day was a different story, and gave the defending NCISAA 1-A champions a little more substance to drive forward into the heart of the season than an empty-handed experience.
“It gives us a little bit more confidence,” Bailey said. “We didn’t get the result we wanted, but I think if we just continue to play our game, we’ll do good in the playoffs and the rest of the regular season.”
GREENFIELD 62 BROUGHTON 44
By Jack Frederick jfrederick@wilsontimes.com
RALEIGH — What was it that was different for Greenfield in Monday’s 62-44 victory over Raleigh Broughton? If you ask senior guard Dji Bailey, the answer is simple.
“The biggest lesson I think we learned is to just play Greenfield basketball,” Bailey said. “Play our game, be composed on the offensive end.”
The Knights were scolded by head coach Rob Salter after a second-straight loss — 72-63 to Durham Academy — in the John Wall Holiday Invitational on Saturday. It was heeding those words and getting back to its roots that helped the Knights (16-4) avoid another loss, to the Capitals (1-10), in the seventh-place game, as well as an 0-3 showing in the tough David West Bracket.
Salter, by all accounts, was much happier with the performance he saw against the tournament’s host school, which springboards his program back into good standing before the start of 1-A/2-A Coastal Plain Independents Conference play against Greenville John Paul II Catholic on Friday.
“A little more like Greenfield basketball to me. I challenged our guys on Saturday after I thought was a lackluster effort for us,” Salter said. “I really challenged them and they came out and responded. That’s the team I know, that’s the team I love coaching.”
What Salter — and the fans who gathered for breakfast-time basketball — saw was a much-improved defensive effort that, at times, flummoxed the Broughton offense before a home crowd at Holliday Gymnasium.
Greenfield forced 22 turnovers out of the Capitals and allowed just 30% field-goal shooting for the game, locking down the host team’s top scorers and limiting Broughton to single-digit points in the first and third quarter — the crucial moments when the game was won.
“I challenged our guards to keep them out of the lane,” Salter said. “I thought we did a good job. (Will) Otto had zero (field goals), No. 20 Julien King didn’t score. We did a good job with their scorers and like I said, I got on them Saturday. I was tough, but these two guys responded I thought defensively.”
Truthfully, the lead had been taken for good in just the first minute of play. Broughton scored the first basket of the game, then the Knights went on a 12-0 run and captured their first double-digit lead on a basket from Bailey early. That deficit was never overcome by Broughton.
In the first half, the Capitals came no closer than four points of Greenfield. When play resumed after halftime, the Knights didn’t waste any time and led by defense again, holding Broughton to a minimum while scoring 10 of the first 12 points to put the game away — something Greenfield hadn’t done in the previous two games.
“As we opened the second half, we were still reasonably in the game,” Broughton head coach Clarence Coleman said. “But they had a strong performance in the third quarter that kind of took us out of it.”
At the start of the fourth, the Knights led by 17 points, but that lead quickly climbed into the 20s, where it stayed until Broughton closed out the game with nine straight points.
Coleman reported the Greenfield defense wreaked havoc on his offense unlike anything the young team had seen this season.
“Today, the game got away from us a little bit. I think it was a lot to do with Greenfield,” Coleman said. “They did some things defensively that we hadn’t seen much of, like trapping on the first pass, especially when you’re dealing with a young team. Even though we’re getting to the middle of the season here, we haven’t seen that a great deal. We had a little bit of trouble with that and that got us out of rhythm.”
After the game, Salter recited the cliche that defense leads to offense, but for Greenfield on Monday that seemed true. With defense creating more opportunities, Bailey flourished to lead the team with 16 points, many which came in the second half.
Jordan Lynch scored 11 points, adding three steals and four rebounds, while Trey Pittman brought down a team-high seven rebounds and added 10 points of his own in the paint.
The first two days of the John Wall did not go how Greenfield expected. The team had nationally ranked Raleigh Millbrook on the ropes Thursday and let the game slip away, then the Knights lacked the energy to beat Durham Academy on Saturday.
But the final day was a different story, and gave the defending NCISAA 1-A champions a little more substance to drive forward into the heart of the season than an empty-handed experience.
“It gives us a little bit more confidence,” Bailey said. “We didn’t get the result we wanted, but I think if we just continue to play our game, we’ll do good in the playoffs and the rest of the regular season.”
