"Beyond the Box Scores" with Aquinas coach Patrick Green; also results from recent games involving Cross Creek and Aiken's boys, and Lakeside, Westside and Harlem's girls

Justin Lloyd - Aquinas

Boys

River Bluff    28 10 16 11    -    65

Cross Creek    11 20 12 14    -    57

    River Bluff - Myles Jenkins 6 8-11 22, Grayson Renner 3 4-4 12, Landon Stills 4 3-5 14, Evan Haig 3 2-2 9, Brice Gordon 1 0-0 2, Chase Powell 3 0-0 6. Totals: 20 17-22 65.

    Cross Creek - Devin Pope 5 1-2 15, Richard Visitacion 6 2-2 16, Ricardo Daggett 1 0-0 2, Corey Trotter 9 1-1 22, Antoine Lorick 3 0-0 6. Totals: 24 4-5 57.

Three-point goals - River Bluff: 8 (Jenkins 2, Renner 2, Stills 3, Haig). Cross Creek: 9 (Pope 4, Visitacion 2, Trotter 3).

Corey Trotter - Cross Creek

South Pointe    No quarter details    -    59

Aiken    6 12 18 13 4 (OT)    -    53

    South Pointe - No scoring details.

    Aiken - Clay Howard 3 0-0 6, RJ Felton 8 2-2 19, Kam Williamson 2 3-4 8, Nate Holland 4 0-0 8, Keyon Landy 1 1-1 3, Dee Roberson 2 1-2 5, DeMarcus Mazone 1 2-2 4. Totals: 21 9-1 53.

Three-point goals - Aiken: 2 (Felton, Williamson).

Girls

*From 11/20

Lakeside    12 14 13 13    -    52

Harlem    8 6 11 13    -    38

    Lakeside - Jania Stokes 4 6-9 14, Makayla Chambliss-Cook 2 3-3 8, Chloe Rivera 2 1-3 5, Kim Williams 4 6-10 14, Claire Messer 1 0-0 3, River Good 1 0-0 2, Dallyan Morales 1 1-2 3, Aeriel Patterson 0 3-4 3. Totals: 15 20-31 52.

    Harlem - Gracyn Gurley 3 0-0 8, Olivia Chen 4 0-2 9, Reagan Quattlebaum 1 0-0 3, Kali Garrett 6 0-0 17, Elizabeth Boudreaux 0 1-2 1. Totals: 14 1-4 38.

Three-point goals - Lakeside: 2 (Chambliss-Cook, Messer). Harlem: 9: (Gurley 2, Chen, Quattlebaum, Garrett 5).

*From 11/24

Lakeside    30 (1st half) 13 7    -    50

Westside    12 (1st half) 9 12    -    33

    Lakeside - Jania Stokes 2 1-2 5, Makayla Chambliss-Cook 1 0-2 3, Chloe Rivera 2 0-2 5, Kim Williams 4 9-15 17, Claire Messer 3 0-0 9, River Good 2 1-2 5, Dallyan Morales 1 0-0 2, Aeriel Patterson 2 0-4 4. Totals: 17 10-26 50.

    Westside - Tetteria Holliman 0 1-4 1, Kaniya Ferguson 1 0-0 2, Taylor Boddie 6 5-7 19, Kennedy Armistead 0 1-2 1, Alexxis Ingram 2 0-2 6, Tayla Greenwood 0 1-1 1, Janiya Lee 2 1-3 3. Totals: 11 9-19 33.

Three-point goals - Lakeside: 5 (Chambliss-Cook, Rivera, Messer 3). Westside: 4 (Boddie 2, Ingram 2).

Beyond the Box Score with Aquinas coach Patrick Green

Aquinas closed Tuesday's road game against Augusta Christian with a 19-8 run to earn a 67-56 win and improve to 1-2 for the season. The spurt started when Tahj Vines broke a 48-48 tie with 6:49 remaining with a corner three on a feed from Patrick Green II. During the rest of the run Green would put in two layups of his own (one shown below). Then Cam Parada and Justin Lloyd finished a lefty layup each. And the sprint ended when Vines threw in a “heat check” type three pointer with the Fighting Irish ahead 59-52 with 1:50 remaining in the game.

The win was the first of the season for Aquinas after three tries, four if you count a preseason contest against Lakeside. After a nail biter in that preseason game, the Fighting Irish took were thumped by Thomson Saturday and Glenn Hills Monday before rallying Tuesday night. It struck me that the team's fourth quarter run was propelled by a noticeable dose of teamwork, chemistry and energy, which was impressive for a young team which could have been reeling after a couple lopsided losses in the days prior.

The morning after the win, I asked second year head coach Patrick Green about the team's unselfish play, and about how the team's chemistry has developed, and whether the bond between the players is something that has progressed throughout the first few games of the season, or if it has always been present. Coach Green's thoughtful reply addresses the question about teamwork, and it describes the core principles he teaches his: the value of playing hard, playing together and playing with discipline.

Aquinas Head Coach Patrick Green:

In reference to chemistry, those guys are constantly in the gym together. They’re always pushing each other. We drive off the proverb of “iron sharpens iron”, so they understand to grow they have to be challenged and challenge each other. And even off the court, they enjoy being around each other. It’s great to see the bond they have and to watch it grow the more battles they go through together.

I appreciate hearing that (my saying the Aquinas's teamwork was evident). I think two of the greatest compliments you can hear about your team is that they play hard and play together. The other being that they play with discipline.

We talk endlessly about the benefits of playing as a unit as opposed to five individual parts. Starting defensively and carrying over to offense. Teamwork is huge for us, particularly in that we’re often out-sized to some degree, and even if we weren’t, it’d still be critical.

In that fourth quarter, those principles were on full display. We knew Augusta Christian was tough and well coached and that we’d have to be at our best to beat them. I’m proud that we locked in defensively in that quarter and on offense found the best shot, make or miss.

We’ve got a young team overall - the pass play you mentioned was from sophomore to sophomore. In fact, during that 4th run, we had three sophomores (Patrick Green II, Tahj Vines, and Justin Lloyd), a freshman (Camden Parada), and a junior (Jacquez Merriweather) on the floor. All those guys made huge plays for us. So, a young team, a talented group of guys and they’ve always been unselfish, but in our first two losses to Thomson and Glenn Hills, we weren’t always very patient. And we paid miserably for it.

We came out more patient against AC, still aggressive, but disciplined. We of course got several big buckets from our senior sharpshooter Alex Cosper in the opening half.

I think that run to end the game illustrated for them how good they can be when they play with aggression coupled with patience and trust. And ultimately, they had a determination to do all the little things that might not show in the box score to win that game.

(Chad: Here's an example of sophomore Justin Lloyd making a fundamentally sound play that doesn't appear in the box score but helped Aquinas earn Tuesday's win. Lloyd boxes out AC's Luke Wilson, who has about a 12 inch height advantage over Lloyd, drawing a foul and gaining his team possession of the ball during Aquinas's run.)

 

We were in the same position heading into the 4th just the night before against Glenn Hills. And we didn’t make the best decisions. Didn’t play as one unit. Great learning opportunity though.

That’s one of the things you miss from the summer, the opportunity for these guys to play together and learn in the battle some of the things they’re having to learn early in the season.

Tonight though, is the kind of night these guys are more than capable of. They worked extremely hard in the off-season on their own and really pull for one another. They know, as we constantly discuss, that we’ll have ups and downs throughout the season but the one constant has to be our commitment to the team in our effort and our attitude.

Aquinas    14 14 18 21    -    67

Augusta Christian    19 14 15 8    -    56

    Aquinas - Camden Parada 3 2-4 8, Patrick Green 2 0-1 4, Tahj Vines 6 0-0 14, Justin Lloyd 9 1-2 19, Jacquez Merriweather 3 5-6 12, Alex Cosper 3 0-0 9. Totals: 26 8-12 67.

    Augusta Christian - Johnny O'Keefe 6 2-6 18, Tray Moseley 4 0-0 8, Avery Evans 2 0-0 4, Elijah Crawford 4 1-2 9, Cam Slade 2 4-4 9, Luke Wilson 2 2-2 6, Jacob Thigpen 2 0-1 2. Totals: 22 9-15 56.

Three-point goals - Aquinas: 6 (Vines 2, Merriweather, Cosper 3). Augusta Christian: 5 (O'Keefe 4, Slade).