Landon Cruises Pass St. Mary's 66-44 in Winter Tourney
Written by: Kelechi Ukpabi
December 29, 2009
BETHESDA, MD - High school basketball fans braved the cold to see the Landon Bears give the St. Mary's (Annapolis) Saints a good old fashioned whipping. Landon exhibited incredible ball pressure for all four quarters of the game and pounded the interior of St. Mary's defense to beat the Saints 66-44.
The loss drops St. Mary's record to 5-4 and their coach, Brian Konnik, expressed frustration, but knows why his team was defeated.
"My guys are just coming off the break and their focus was not all the way there" said coach Konnik. "We were a little out of shape and it showed. We just got out hustled."
Both teams showed a little rust from the winter break. The game started off slow with careless turnovers by both teams and the whistles of the officials going off it seemed like every 15 seconds.
Once the players and the referees settled in, Landon showed that they were the more physically aggressive team by continually slicing through the porous St. Mary's zone.
Throughout the contest, there was nothing that could be done with the Bear's Danny Rubin. Rubin connected on layups, medium range jumpers, and three pointers for Landon and was the leading scorer with 24 points.
Rubin was by far the most impressive player of the night with his balanced offense. He also was tenacious on the defensive side of the ball applying major ball pressure on the St Mary's ball handlers.
In the first quarter, Landon implemented a full court press that bothered the floor generals for St. Mary's. With Danny Rubin and Kai Kight applying the majority of the pressure in the backcourt, the Saints failed to advance the ball half court with much success.
Even when they did, the Bears would transform into an intense half-court defense that included extreme ball denial and busy backcourt defending.
St. Mary's finished the first quarter with 10 points and was forced to come up with answers for the imposing Landon defense. The score stood at 22-10 after one quarter of action.
At the beginning of the 2nd quarter, the Saints tried to implement there own version of full court pressure, but that back fired when Landon scored two easy buckets off the pressure to make it 26-10.
That's when Landon began to separate itself from St. Mary's. It became the Danny Rubin show when Rubin connected on a three pointer from NBA range. The long range shot excited the crowed and you could feel the electricity in the building.
Then, after another Landon defensive stop, Rubin, one of the team's captains and a senior, led a fast break and finished with a left hand jam over two St. Mary's defenders. The crowd went wild and in the blink of an eye, the Bears were up 31-10.
The Saints first bucket in the second quarter came all the way at the 4:38 mark, due the smothering Landon defense.
The Saints then went on a 11-5 run to end the quarter, when they were getting fast break opportunities and better looks. St. Mary's could have cut deeper into their deficit at the end of the second quarter, but they missed three straight shots at point blank range right before the half. The halftime score was 36-21, Landon with the lead.
Early in the 3rd quarter, Landon began to run more set plays out of the offense and getting high percentage looks at the basket. Using a series of pick and rolls and sharp cuts the basket, Landon jumped to a 43-24 lead.
Throughout the 3rd quarter, Landon continually penetrated with sophomore guard Joe McDonald and senior guard Kai Kight. McDonald and Kight also were also aggressive on defense staying right in the face of St. Mary's ball handlers Kam Tower and Mike Wilde.
One of the few bright spots for St. Mary's was Wilde, who finished the game with 23 points and scored 7 straight points in a stretch in the 3rd quarter. The tough, blonde haired floor general tried to rally his team and give them a sparks, but by the end of three quarters, Landon was up 53-33.
In the 4th quarter, St. Mary's began to show miscommunication on offense, beginning the quarter with three straight turnovers, all steals.
Landon jumped out to a 61-33 lead, their largest of the night. The Bears then began to slow down the tempo and use the clock to their advantage.
Landon continued to run their offense and attack the basket putting the St. Mary's players in foul trouble foul out.
Mike Wilde would not go back to Annapolis without a fight, connecting with a three pointer and a couple of layups with 3 minutes left to put the score at 63-38, but the Bears defense is too much to handle for St. Mary's.
Landon ended the game with precise free throw shooting and a defensive effort that did not stop until the refs blew the final whistle. The final score was 66-44, Landon over St. Mary's.
"We take pride in our defense and our leaders carried us through to put this tough team away. That was our key to victory" said Landon Coach Andy Luther.
