Coming off a loss at the buzzer to Thornton Academy, the Deering boys’ basketball team felt it was moving in the right direction after last season’s one-win campaign. Friday night’s 48-44 win over Sanford was confirmation that the Rams are a better team.
“It was time that we left last year in the rear-view mirror. We responded well. We talked through that last loss, and in the end we said good, we’ll get better,” Deering Coach Todd Wing said.
Deering (1-2) took the lead for good early in the second quarter, pushing it to as many as 12 points. While Sanford (1-2) rallied to make it close, the Rams always found the play they needed to maintain the advantage.
With Deering ahead 42-35 with 2:30 to play, Dylan Gendron of Sanford made a pair of free throws, and Makai Bougie’s layup with 2:14 left cut the Rams’ lead to 42-39. Tavian Lauture’s putback pushed Deering’s lead back to five points, and Evan Legassey’s corner 3-pointer with 1:15 to play all but iced it for Deering, pushing the lead to 47-39.
Legassey scored eight of his game-high 15 points in the fourth quarter.
“I didn’t contribute early to my team on offense or rebounding. I was just trying to get on the boards, most importantly. If I’m open, I shoot it. That’s my game,” Legassey said.
Deering was at its best offensively when it attacked the basket, generating second-chance buckets and foul shots. Justin Jamal, Deering’s shifty 5-foot-9 point guard, crashed into the paint like a player twice his size, taking contact and getting to the line. Five of Jamal’s 11 points came at the line.
“We can get to the rim. You’ve just got to manufacture points,” Wing said. “We got to the line. We missed some key free throws but at the very least we got there.”
Defensively, Deering was a chameleon, rotating through 1-3-1 or 2-3 zones, with some man-to-man thrown in. In the second quarter, Wing deployed his Heat Wave unit, a group that comes off the bench to play tenacious full-court defense. With the Heat Wave on the court, the Rams pushed their lead to double digits.
“They got us that lead and I’m very proud of those guys,” Wing said,
Sanford Coach Jake Mills said his team hasn’t seen much defense like Deering’s, and it was had to prepare for it with just two days of practice. The experience will help as the season unfolds, Mills said.
“It’s certainly a different style than we’re used to. We hadn’t played Deering in four years now,” Mills said. “They play super fast and they’re physical. This was a great opportunity for us to see where we’re at. We got down … but we didn’t quit.”
The Spartans scored in a flurry over the final 10 seconds to cut the deficit to four. Brady Adams made a layup, then, after a Deering turnover, Adams made a 3-pointer with one second left.
Tanner McCann led Sanford with 12 points. Gendron scored 10 and Bougie added nine.
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