Manning – Bryan Grice has 16 players on his Dillon High School boys basketball roster, and he isn’t afraid to use all of them. That certainly worked to his benefit on Friday against Manning.
The Dillon head coach got the right combination on the floor in the third quarter that used pressure defense to chip away at a 16-point deficit that eventually ended in a 70-68 win at Manning Junior High School’s Gibson Gymnasium.
"It’s just a matter of getting the right chemistry out there,” said Grice, whose team improved to 15-6 on the season. “It’s a matter of getting the right guys to play. We were putting the press on them, and we were able to come back after we got five team fouls early in the (third) quarter. We took advantage of that, and the guys I had out there were more aggressive.
“The momentum changes because of the pressure we were putting on them. They were throwing it away or walking or we were able to get steals.”
Much more importantly than it delivering DHS’ 15th overall win was the fact it improved to 6-2 in Region 7-AAA. That leaves it in sole possession of second place, one game ahead of 5-3 Georgetown.
Dillon plays host to Waccamaw on Monday before traveling to Georgetown on Wednesday. Georgetown plays host to winless Aynor on Monday before welcoming in Dillon.
“Waccamaw gave us a pretty good run the first time,” said Grice, whose team beat Waccamaw 46-43 and followed that with a 75-43 win over Georgetown. “If we win that I think we’ve got a pretty good chance at second.”
Manning, which fell to 14-10 and 3-5, led 32-22 at halftime. The Wildcats cut the deficit to 33-27 early in the third quarter before the Monarchs ran off 10 consecutive points. A 3-point play by Tyler Green made it 43-27 with 4:10 remaining in the third quarter.
MHS was still in control at 48-32 with just over two minutes left in the quarter when DHS started its comeback. Consecutive layups off of steals by Zamaurious Robertson and Jamarion Fling helped make it 48-40. Dillon then made 7 of 11 free throws in a 44-second stretch to cut the lead to 48-47 with 7:42 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“We saw that they were not handling it too good,” Grice said. “Once a team starts getting layups off the press, then you back off. When you see they look a little rattled, then you can start putting more pressure on them.”
Manning was able to maintain the lead until Robertson hit a 3-point shot to tie the game at 58-58 with 4:10 left. A Shawn Samuel layup gave Dillon the lead for good at 60-58 with 3:27 to go. The Wildcats pushed the lead to 66-58 with 1:55 remaining and held on for the win.
Manning hurt itself by struggling from the free throw line. The Monarchs connected on just 12 of 28 free throws. They were 8 of 20 in the second half, going 3 of 10 in the third quarter and 5 of 10 in the fourth quarter.
We missed 16 free throws and we lost by two,” said MHS head coach Patrick Clark. “You hit half of those and you win. We lost the game in the third quarter. We turned the ball over and made some silly mistakes.
“At the same time, when we were up we were rushing or shots. We were rushing on offense, and that's what we’ve got to learn to do, game management and clock management.”
Jeffrey Ceasar led Manning with 22 points and scored his 1,000th career point. He was getting to the basket and getting fouls but was just 6-for-16 from the free throw line.
Lovell Stevenson added 14 for Manning, while Tristan Washington had 11 and Jordyn Thompson had 10.
Grice used 11 players on Friday and eight of them scored. Leading the way was Robertson, who finished with 26 points. Robertson, who is averaging 14.9 points per game, had 12 in the third quarter and drained two 3s in the fourth quarter to spur on the win.
Fling and Rahmond Hamilton both finished with 10 apiece. Samuel finished with seven points, all of them in the fourth quarter. Tanorre Monroe had five.
Those five were on the floor for most of the comeback. Six of the Wildcats have played in at least 20 games and all of them have played in at least 11 games with Hamilton having played in the fewest games.
“I look at it as our strength being an overall team,” Grice said. “I've got 16 players. Sometimes different attitudes come up, and I've got to find the right combination out there. I try to manage it to get the best ones out there to finish the game. I may not start with it that way, but I try to get the best ones out there at the end.”
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