Briarcliff ‘s Shooting and Defense Overwhelms the Panthers
Stepping quickly to his right, Briarcliff center Brian Daniels intercepted a crosscourt pass along the sideline and began a coast- to-coast journey to the basket. When he arrived at the rim, he emphatically dunked the ball with one hand, putting the finishing flourish on a resounding victory for the Bears over rival Pleasantville.
The slam dunk by Daniels was just the final insult inflicted on the Panthers last Friday night at Pace University’s Goldstein Fitness Center. The undefeated Bears scored the game’s first five points and never trailed, cruising to a 71-49 triumph in a contest that was all but over by the middle of the third quarter.
“Our guys are understanding what it takes to win games,” said Bears coach Brendan Coxen after his team’s fifth consecutive victory. “At Pace University, playing Pleasantville, I think that just made us a little bit more disciplined than maybe we normally are. These guys just wanted it so bad.”
From the moment the Bears’ Jared Jones opened the game with a 3-pointer to silence the large Panther student section that had been reminding everyone what the score was in the neighboring schools’ most recent football clash, it turned into a Briarcliff night. Jones soon followed with a fast-break layup and the Panthers spent the rest of the evening trying to play catch-up.
A baseline jumper by John Leyden moved the Panthers within 10-6 late in the first quarter, but then Daniels, who led Briarcliff with 18 points, scored consecutive baskets and Spencer Seabrook added a layup that allowed the Bears to take their first double-digit lead of the evening.
When the second quarter began with Seabrook making a 3-pointer from left of the key and Jackson Wexler connecting on two more from beyond the arc, the Bears’ lead was suddenly 25-9 and Pleasantville coach Chris Welsh had to know he was in for a long evening.
“We didn’t show enough heart tonight,” he said shortly after the final buzzer. “It’s tough when you come in and it’s a rivalry game in a big spot in a big gym, with a lot of people home for the holidays here to see you play. You come out and nerves are understandable, everybody has nerves. But I tell the kids all the time the nerves need to be excited to win, not scared to lose. And tonight we were scared to lose. We weren’t ready to win.”
The first half closed with foul-plagued Ryan Huegel passing the ball to Alquan Phillip in the right corner. The sophomore guard knocked down a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer, stretching the Briarcliff lead to 35-18. Phillip’s shot was the fifth from beyond the 3-point line the Bears made in the second quarter, something Welsh was not expecting to see.
“Oh yeah,” he said about the Bears’ proficiency from the perimeter. “They had kids who, in the scout haven’t made a shot all year, come out and drill shots. And for that, you have to tip your hat. Congratulations to Briarcliff. They really put a whuppin’ on us.”
“The reason why we hit so many 3-pointers,” said Coxen, “is that their focal point is on Brian down inside, so it kind of packs them in a little bit. We got open looks and we have some guys that can shoot it. They’re confident and I think it’s the mentally strongest team I’ve been around. If you’re mentally strong and confident, you’re gonna shoot with confidence in here. We’re gonna hit some shots.”
The Panthers’ Charlie Montgomery began the third quarter with a layup and, soon after, Jack Eisenberg, who had 19 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, provided a pair of buckets that narrowed the Pleasantville deficit to 13 points. But they never got any closer as Briarcliff responded with a 9-0 run to blow open the contest.
Jones, who had stepped up to run the team in the first half with Huegel saddled with two early fouls, began the run when he drove the lane and sailed in for a layup. Daniels followed with another layup and Phillip added a 3-pointer. Seabrook ended the burst with another jumper and the Panthers were forced to call a timeout. They began the fourth quarter facing a 53-29 deficit and never got closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
Daniels supplied the last highlight of the evening for Briarcliff, providing his exclamation-point dunk with three minutes remaining just a few feet from the unimpressed Panther rooting section. Moments later, both coaches emptied their benches and the Bears were soon being handed the oversized trophy that goes to the victors in the annual Lt. Charles Garbarini Memorial Basketball Game.
Welsh took a stroll down his bench in the waning few seconds, making sure the players he counts on the most had noticed the effort being displayed by the Panther reserves.
“With five seconds left,” he said, “I went and I told the guys who were on the bench, the starters, the regular rotation, to look out at the guys who ended the game because they hustled, they played hard ’til the buzzer. And at times tonight, I questioned how bad we wanted it. I questioned how bad we tried. And that’s a tough thing to swallow as a coach. Despite being in a big gym with a lot of people, effort can never stop, and I think tonight for a few times there wasn’t as much effort as there should’ve been.”
Coxen, meanwhile, had no similar concerns after watching his Bears dismantle their fiercest rival. “Today it was really, for us, the defensive end,” he said. “I felt like we took care of business on the defensive end and that was the difference for us. We knew what they do and we addressed certain things and how we wanted to defend it and these guys execute our game plan defensively. So it was awesome.”
Now he wonders if the Bears can duplicate Friday’s performance when the 2013 portion of their schedule gets started. “We know we have the ability to shoot the ball,” he said. “But if we can’t guard, we’re not gonna win any games. You wish you could play this way every day and every game, but I don’t know if we can do that again. But I hope so.”
Andy is a sports editor at Examiner Media, covering seven high schools in the mid-Westchester region with a notebook and camera. He began there in the fall of 2007 following 15 years as a candid photographer for the largest school picture company in the tri-state area.
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