Mark Dragoo had no idea how his Patriots would play Friday night.
The Arts & Sciences basketball coach hadn’t seen them compete in a game since Jan. 15, when they defeated Howard by two points.
The Patriots looked efficient during the first half at Boyd-Buchanan and held on in the second half for a 46-35 District 5-A win.
“We played great in the first half; then we were gassed,” Dragoo said. “It was good to get challenged.”
Dragoo’s inside-outside senior duo of Todd Lansden and Shunn Moorer scored 12 and 13 points and grabbed 13 and 10 rebounds, Lansden also blocking three shots. Cade Evans led the Buccaneers with 12 points.
“Coming off the layoff we had to see how we would sync with each other,” Moorer said. “We listened to coaches, and defensively we did exactly what we needed to do.”
The Patriots (11-4, 4-0) used a variety of defenses against the Bucs, something they didn’t do in their 57-53 win over Boyd-Buchanan back in December. CSAS pressured in the full court with a 2-2-1, using the 6-foot-4 Lansden as a rim protector. They also used a 1-2-2 with Lansden on the ball at times. In the half-court defense, CSAS played a 2-3 zone for the first time this season and mixed in some 3-2 zone to guard against the Bucs’ shooters.
It all worked to near perfection in the first half.
CSAS limited the Bucs (12-7, 3-2) to five points in the first quarter. The Bucs needed nearly five minutes to score their first points and came up empty on 13 of 15 possessions in the first eight minutes. They improved with eight points in the second quarter yet trailed 29-13 at halftime.
“We came out really slow, and they punched us in the mouth that whole first quarter,” Boyd-Buchanan coach Zach Roddenberry said. “In the first half we settled for shots. We did better in the second half. We won the second half.”
Boyd-Buchanan trimmed its deficit to 35-24 by the end of the third quarter, then started the fourth with a 9-4 run and pulled within 39-33. Parris Clarke scored a bucket with 3:23 remaining to get the Bucs within 41-35.
They didn’t score again, though, coming up empty on their final eight possessions as CSAS began to salt away the clock.
“That’s the best defense we’ve played all year,” Lansden said. “We wanted to show what our team can do.”
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP