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Pop quiz: How does a basketball team win a game by 30 points when their leading scorer has nine points and they only manage 12 points after halftime?
Answer: Have a historically good game on defense.
That is exactly what the Seneca Indians did in their first game of the Seneca Tournament against Miami, Okla. The Wardogs never scored more than five points in a quarter and the Indians rolled to a 47-17 win. The 17 points allowed by Seneca breaks a five year-old team record of 21.
“It was great,” Seneca coach Will King said of his team’s defensive effort. “I can’t complain even a little bit. I like to give credit to our defense. That’s a big part of our program that pride in our defense. A couple of the guys were joking in the locker room that when a team wins by 30, they usually score 70 or 80 points. That’s just not how we do things.”
In the first quarter, neither team was able to get anything going on offense. Finally, with about four minutes to play in the frame, Seneca was able to create some easy baskets off of steals to jump out to a 16-4 lead.
In the second quarter, the Indians’ half-court offense started to break the tough Miami defense and Seneca built a 35-9 lead going into the locker room at halftime.
It was at this point that King and his team knew that they could potentially break the young, but prestigious, record.
“I think we just went back to our concepts on defense,” King said. “The kids joke that we spend the whole practice working on defense and then get to a little bit of offense at the end. They joke, but there is a lot of truth to that. I think our rotations were good. We stress three phases of defense: No. 1 sprinting back, No. 2 playing solid half court and No. 3 rebounding. I think we did a good job in all those aspects.”
If the Wardogs were going to make a run, it would have had to happen in the third quarter. Seneca took their time on offense, only putting up a handful of shots. However, Miami missed a number of good looks at the basket and only managed five points. Seneca only scored six points in the quarter.
In the fourth quarter, it was blatantly obvious that all Seneca wanted to do on offense was run off the clock. In fact, the Indians didn’t score until there were about three minutes left to play. Brett Burr nailed a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers for Seneca.
Daniel Noah led the Indians with nine points.
Other scorers for Seneca were: Kyler Ng 8, Chance Smith 6, Burr 6, Dalton Lindsey 4, Elias Roelfsema 4, Bradley Jumper 3, Zack Kelly 2 and Logan St. Clair 1.
The previous record of 21 points was set in a 2007 game against Neosho.
Seneca will take on Lamar on Friday at 7 p.m. Lamar is coming off an 18-point loss to Diamond.
“It’s going to be a battle again tomorrow night with Lamar and then again on Saturday against Diamond,” King said. “So we’ve got to keep getting better.”
Pop quiz: How does a basketball team win a game by 30 points when their leading scorer has nine points and they only manage 12 points after halftime?
Answer: Have a historically good game on defense.
That is exactly what the Seneca Indians did in their first game of the Seneca Tournament against Miami, Okla. The Wardogs never scored more than five points in a quarter and the Indians rolled to a 47-17 win. The 17 points allowed by Seneca breaks a five year-old team record of 21.
“It was great,” Seneca coach Will King said of his team’s defensive effort. “I can’t complain even a little bit. I like to give credit to our defense. That’s a big part of our program that pride in our defense. A couple of the guys were joking in the locker room that when a team wins by 30, they usually score 70 or 80 points. That’s just not how we do things.”
In the first quarter, neither team was able to get anything going on offense. Finally, with about four minutes to play in the frame, Seneca was able to create some easy baskets off of steals to jump out to a 16-4 lead.
In the second quarter, the Indians’ half-court offense started to break the tough Miami defense and Seneca built a 35-9 lead going into the locker room at halftime.
It was at this point that King and his team knew that they could potentially break the young, but prestigious, record.
“I think we just went back to our concepts on defense,” King said. “The kids joke that we spend the whole practice working on defense and then get to a little bit of offense at the end. They joke, but there is a lot of truth to that. I think our rotations were good. We stress three phases of defense: No. 1 sprinting back, No. 2 playing solid half court and No. 3 rebounding. I think we did a good job in all those aspects.”
If the Wardogs were going to make a run, it would have had to happen in the third quarter. Seneca took their time on offense, only putting up a handful of shots. However, Miami missed a number of good looks at the basket and only managed five points. Seneca only scored six points in the quarter.
In the fourth quarter, it was blatantly obvious that all Seneca wanted to do on offense was run off the clock. In fact, the Indians didn’t score until there were about three minutes left to play. Brett Burr nailed a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers for Seneca.
Daniel Noah led the Indians with nine points.
Other scorers for Seneca were: Kyler Ng 8, Chance Smith 6, Burr 6, Dalton Lindsey 4, Elias Roelfsema 4, Bradley Jumper 3, Zack Kelly 2 and Logan St. Clair 1.
The previous record of 21 points was set in a 2007 game against Neosho.
Seneca will take on Lamar on Friday at 7 p.m. Lamar is coming off an 18-point loss to Diamond.
“It’s going to be a battle again tomorrow night with Lamar and then again on Saturday against Diamond,” King said. “So we’ve got to keep getting better.”
