The Pinecrest boys’ basketball team showed one way of doing it Friday night. It held visiting Douglas Byrd without a field goal for a nine-minute period of the first half and for almost six minutes in the fourth quarter of a 63-46 victory.
Hilary McLaurin and Raqqi Chalmers each stole the ball five times to lead the Patriots defensively. Stephone Covington led the home team with 14 points, 12 of them coming in the second half. Jon Gribben and McLaurin were also in double figures with 11 and 10, respectively.
After losses to Westover and Seventy-First earlier this week, the Patriots, now 3-4 in the Mid-Southeastern Conference, and 8-8 overall, needed a win badly. The defensive effort that produced 17 steals in all could not have come at a better time.
“One of the things we identified over the summer was that we needed to play better defense,” Patriot coach Mike Apple said. “We play very good defense at times. We are usually in the right position; the next step is better communication.
“But, we’ve got to take better care of the ball. We had 11 turnovers on Tuesday against Seventy-First, which was the best we’ve had all season.”
The Patriots almost matched that total (nine) in the first quarter against the Eagles. With the scored tied at 9-all, George Harrison twice, and Chris Baynes, intercepted balls near midcourt and converted them into layups for a 15-9 Eagle lead. Those would be the last Eagle baskets until the final minute of the second quarter. Twenty of the next 22 Patriot points, along with much of the energy shown on defense, came from the bench.
Brandon Cain started a 10-0 run with a pair of free throws and Gribben closed the first quarter scoring with a jumper, making it 15-13. Chalmers opened the second period with a no-look pass over the defense to Cain for a layup, tying the game at 15-all. A Gribben finish of a Cain miss made it 19-15 before a Baynes free throw stopped the bleeding for the Eagles.
But, only for a moment. Jeremy Lewis fed Cain for a three-point play inside off of a Chalmers steal, and then Chalmers stole the ball himself and took it in for a 28-17 lead. Seconds later, Chalmers’ fourth steal of the quarter was turned into another old-fashioned three-point play, this time by Lewis, making it 31-19.
Apple says that Chalmers has been an energy guy for his team all season, a role the junior guard enjoys.
“Coach says I’ve got the best defense on the team,” Chalmers said after the game. “I get everybody in the crowd into the game, and it makes the other players play better.”
Another bout of turnover-itis helped the Eagles get back into the fray just before the end of the half. A layup by Travis McBryde, for his teams only field goal of the quarter, and a moment later his two throws made it 31-25 at the break. The Patriots led in spite of 18 turnovers.
“I don’t think Seventy-First is as quick as they (Douglas Byrd) are,” Apple said. “We have to adjust our game accordingly, and we had a hard time doing that.”
The Patriots extended the lead back to 10 at the start of the second half on a drive by Garry Hailey and an inside basket by Covington from Hailey. Later in the period, back-to-back steals by Baynes led to a layup and two free throws, cutting the lead to 41-37.
Then, the 6-foot-5 Murchison and the 6-3 Covington began taking advantage of the shorter Eagles. Murchison scored twice inside as the quarter wound down.
Chalmers sat out the entire third quarter, but it took him only 11 seconds in the fourth to reset the defensive tone with a steal. Murchison then converted a McLaurin miss at the foul line to put the Pats in command for good at 48-37. The visitors never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Apple explained why it took so long to get Chalmers back in the game.
“I try to get a little rotation going, but with Hilary playing as well as he was, I kind of wanted to keep him on the court,” the coach said. “That kind of messed up the substitution pattern.”
McLaurin capped a strong all-around game with three steals and two assists in the first four minutes of the final period. He talked about the defensive strategy that limited one of the league’s top three-point threats, and 13-point per game scorer, George Harrison, to one missed attempt from behind the arc and a total of seven points.
“We worked on defense a lot in practice this week,” the junior said. “Our game plan was to stop them from dribbling. He (Harrison) was their only outside player, and when we stopped their penetration, we had them.”
The Patriots made 23 of 47 shots from the field (49 percent). The Eagles, 1-5 and 7-8, were 16 of 42 (38 percent) with no baskets from behind the arc in four attempts. Murchison grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to go with eight points. The Patriots’ Charles McKnight, normally a starter, missed the game with the flu.
The Eagles, who turned the ball over 24 times, were led in scoring by McBryde with 12 points.
The Patriots’ next game is a non-conference date on Wednesday at Lumberton beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Douglas Byrd 15 10 12 9 — 46
Pinecrest 13 18 14 19 — 64
Douglas Byrd —Thompson 0 1-2 1, McNeill 2 4-5 8, McBryde 5 2-2 12, Harrison 3 1-2 7, Hicks 1 3-4 5, Rivers 1 0-0 2, Haynes 0 0-0 0, Wested 0 0-0 0, Eaddy 0 0-0 0. Totals - 16 14-19 46.
Pinecrest — Hailey 1 2-2 4, McLaurin 3 3-5 10, Covington 5 4-4 14, Murchison 4 0-2 8, Jones 0 0-0 0, Gribben 4 3-5 11, Chalmers 2 0-0 4, Cain 2 3-3 7, J. Lewis 1 1-1 2, Nelson 0 0-0 0, S. Lewis 1 0-0 3, Lapper 0 0-0 0, McSwain 0 0-0 0. Totals - 23 16-22 64.
Three-point goals: Douglas Byrd 0; Pinecrest 1 (McLaurin).
