High School Boys Basketball: Defense is ‘Key’ to success for undefeated R.A. Long
Hardwood Lockdown – No. 2 Lumberjacks ride reputation for getting stops into State opener
Jordan Nailon for BlastZoneMedia.com / blastzonenews@gmail.com
2A Prep Boys Basketball / Scouting Report
The most shocking part of R.A. Long’s victory in the 2A District IV championship game was not the victory itself. The undefeated Lumberjacks were expected to win by nearly everyone outside of the Tumwater city limits even though the T-Birds rode a 20-game win streak into the contest.
Still, when Tumwater went to the locker room trailing by two dozen points at halftime it wasn’t the gap on the scoreboard that was the most shocking. Instead, it was the fact that the T-Birds had just 13 points themselves.
A mere baker’s dozen for the 2A EvCo champions over two full quarters of play. Incredible.
Fans in the stands were flummoxed. T-Birds fans couldn’t believe it. Lumberjacks fans couldn’t believe it had worked quite so well.
But Tumwater head coach Josh Wilson was not surprised. He was frustrated, sure, but he knew full well what brand of defense the Jacks were going to deploy as soon as his team defeated Woodland in the District semifinals. You see, both Wilson and Key graduated from Mark Morris High School, and back when they were both still able to throw down windmill dunks their paths crossed plenty of times – and elbows were most certainly thrown.
“I’m a little bit older than Jeray but when I would come back and play in open gyms Jeray would come at me with everything he had, 100%,” Wilson recalled. “I would tell him that he’s fouling me, but right then and there me and him were just bulldogs going at each other.”
Keep in mind that Wilson, at that time, was the starting point guard at Northern Arizona University while Key was still busy mastering the art of defensive slides and taking charges under the tutelage of Bill Bakamus with the Monarchs.
“That’s where I learned to respect the heck out of this guy, just because of who he is defensively. – just mutant strength,” Wilson said. “I’m so thankful for him, even in those moments, because he made me a lot better player when I was getting ready to go play overseas.”
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