By Paul Gotham
BUFFALO, NY — Making opponents play faster than they want is usually reserved for pressing teams. Those quads which trap in the front court force opposing teams to rush shots and make ill-advised passes.
The Canisius Golden Griffins are accomplishing the same effect in the half court.
Sunday afternoon the Griffs forced 19 turnovers in a convincing 67-48 non-conference victory over the Holy Cross Crusaders. It was the latest in a line of wins where the Griffs have made opposing ballhandlers uncomfortable.
“We’re spending a lot of time keeping guys in front, playing team defense and shrinking the court,” said Canisius head coach Jim Baron. “We’re making the court smaller by jumping to the ball and making it tight. We’re constantly in help position. We’re just making a conscious effort of doing that.”
Hedging hard on opponents’ ball screens the Golden Griffins are averaging more than 16 forced turnovers in their six wins.
It starts outside arc near the top of the key. The opposing team brings an inside player to the ball for a screen. This two-man game should put the defense in reaction mode. Canisius turns the tables. The defensive big man gets above the screener and contains the dribbler.
“They were hedging the ball screen hard which is something most teams do,” Holy Cross Milan Brown stated. “They were jumping out and hedging, and then they flood the paint to protect the paint behind them. We had a couple of opportunities that I thought we took advantage of, but we just couldn’t do it enough.”
At the same time, the remaining Golden Griffins rotate to take away the first pass and eliminate other passing lanes.
“The ballhandler has to make the right decision,” Brown explained. “Sometimes, it’s not the first pass after the hedge. It’s actually the second pass, and that’s where we struggled today. When we got off the ball screen to make the first pass, the second pass wasn’t the right one which meant they got back to reload their defense, and it made it difficult.”
Canisius grabbed a season-high 12 steals – their first double-digit theft effort.
“I really thought our defense stepped up,” Baron stated. “We were aggressive. We played to win the game. We didn’t play close to the vest. We kept attacking.”
In five of their six wins, the Griffs have forced more turnovers than opponents have assists and in their past two victories Canisius has created double the turnovers to opponent’s assists.
Canisius converted 19 Holy Cross turnovers into 22 points. Many of those turnovers came on ball screens.
“The bigs do a really good job of making us look good,” said Canisius guard Adam Weir. “They do the hardest job. They got to hedge, and then get back to their man. Then we just got to slide through there. It’s a joint operation. You basically got make your reactions based on where the ball is and what the man’s trying to do.”
“We knew that they needed the ball screen. We knew that they needed to turn the corner, and I think our guys really did a great job of hard hedging, playing smart, not letting them split the screens and getting back to the man. We knew that they were perimeter-oriented, so we spent a lot of time working on their perimeter guards.”
“Give them credit,” Brown said. “They took advantage of it. The turnovers are what killed us. It seemed like they capitalized on every one.”
Limiting opponents to 45.2 percent shooting from the floor (national average – 47.84) including 32 percent behind the arc (national average – 33.73) Canisius allows 61.2 points a game. Down from a year ago when the Griffs gave up 73.59.
Last season, the Griffs had a defensive rating of 1.06 (the number points allowed per possession) .03 above than the national average. Through ten games this year the Griffs have a defensive rating of .91 – .o8 below the national average.
Zach Lewis finished with game highs of seven steals and five assists against Holy Cross. During a decisive 11-0 second-half run, the sophomore guard had steals on back-to-back possessions which he converted into baskets – one for himself and another for teammate Jermaine Crumpton.
“That’s what coach has been preaching all year,” Lewis said. “Biggest thing we’ve been worrying about is defense, defense, defense. We got a bunch of young guys. The first thing going in college is you got to be able to play defense. You got to be able to stop somebody.”
Canisius created 13 turnovers while allowing just five assists in Thursday’s 60-59 win in overtime against Stony Brook. The Griffs forced 16 miscues in their win over Niagara, 20 against Lehigh and 17 versus Vermont. St. Peter’s limited the turnovers to 13 and handed out 15 assists but fell at home to Canisius, 60-57.
“Our defense was consistent,” Baron said. “It’s all in front of us. Our defense did it, our defense and our rebounding. That’s what we got to keep hanging our hat on.”
Canisius hosts UMKC next Tuesday at the Koessler Athletic Center. A 7 p.m. tipoff is scheduled.
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