Revived Reagan cruises to victory over Parkland
Photo by Craig T. Greenlee
Parkland’s Chris Brown drives the baseline against Reagan’s Tyler Carmer (34) as Tanner Nelson (50) closes in.
BY CRAIG T. GREENLEE
FOR THE CHRONICLE
On a night when its top scorer encountered difficulties, Reagan benefited from some much-needed offensive diversity. The end result was a 66-45 victory over Parkland in JV basketball last Tuesday.
This win provides strong evidence that the Raiders have charted a new path since the start of the season. After stumbling out of the blocks with a 0-3 record, they won six of their next eight games.
Coach Jeff Noe feels good about team’s performance at the start of the new year. “This was the first game we’ve played since Christmas break and I’m excited about the energy we came out with,” he said. “We played good defense and for the most part, kept them out of the middle.
“Plus, we did a good job of sharing the ball. Over half of our points in the first half came off assists. We teach our guys to play together, be unified and share in each others’ glory. We did a lot of that tonight.”
Reagan took control of the game from the opening tip and slowly pulled away to take a 26-17 lead at the half. Shammond Dockery topped the Raiders with 11 points, Jalen Deatherage chipped in with 10 and Zac Pascual finished with nine points.
What made this outcome even more satisfying is that Reagan won convincingly in spite of minimal production from Ryan Ayers, who led the team in scoring over the past three weeks. Ayers, who averaged 17 points a game during that span, was held to one point for the game.
“I could tell right away that they had scouted us,” said Noe. “They ran a box-and-one on Ryan in the first half and for most of the third quarter. By doing so, they took him out of the game. With that being the case, everybody had to step up and they did. Knowing that 12 of the 13 players on our roster scored is pretty cool.”
Although the Mustangs struggled, they managed to stay in contention for most of the first half. Micah Williams hit a jumper to pull Parkland to within six points of the lead (22-16) with four minutes left in the second quarter. But from that point on, Reagan gradually pulled away to build a comfortable cushion.
The one plus for Parkland was Damien Thacker’s defense on Ayers. With Thacker shadowing Ayers on every possession, it took away from what he normally contributes at the offensive end. Thacker, an on-target outside shooter, finished with eight points.
It also didn’t help the cause that Daniel Leal, the Mustangs other scoring threat, played limited minutes. This was Leal’s first game back after being sidelined for three weeks with a back injury. Micah Williams and Leal scored 10 points apiece to lead Parkland.
“We just couldn’t get our rhythm going,” said coach James Williams of Parkland. “For some reason, we couldn’t finish opportunities on offense. And on defense, we gave up a lot of easy baskets.
“Reagan’s leading scorer only had one point, so that just goes to show that we weren’t ready to play defense on the other four guys. We definitely weren’t at our best, but there will be other days to play. Once we get our normal rotation back, I think we’ll be fine.”
