By BILLY HEYEN
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Leadership Academy basketball coach William Broome loved watching Nolan Richardson’s Arkansas teams play in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The Razorbacks’ defensive approach was called “40 minutes of hell.”
High school games are only 32 minutes, and in a blowout Saturday, the Lions didn’t even need all of those. But for every minute their game was close Saturday, that’s exactly what Leadership threw at Global Concepts — hell.
“We’re a short team, so we’re a fastbreak team, so we can’t slow down,” Leadership junior Maurice McKinney said. “That’s why we press a lot, because in practice, all we do is run, run, run.”
Behind a full-court press and fastbreak after fastbreak, Leadership Academy moved to 6-0 on the season with a 105-68 win over Section VI’s Global Concepts as part of the Bishop Kearney Holiday Showcase. McKinney led the Lions with 22 points, while he was joined in double figures by five teammates: Kennyh Hardeman (16), Calvin Washington (14), Ja’Mez Aiken (11), Shamir McCullough (10) and Ray Boyd (10). It all started with that defense.
The Lions’ first bucket came when Hardeman put back his own miss, and immediately they set up their full-court pressure. As Global Concepts tried to break the press with three guards in the backcourt and two forwards pushed up the floor, Leadership matched up, man for man. It formed the shape of an extended 3-2 zone.
Every dribble or pass that Global Concepts made was a Leadership steal waiting to happen. There were pockets picked and passing lanes jumped. Three of the takeaways in the first half led to Hardeman dunks, and he was joined by what felt like layup lines for the Lions as Shamir McCullough led the way with six steals.
Kennyh Hardeman has eight early points, another dunk and Leadership leads 17-3. #ROC @PickinSplinters pic.twitter.com/D5xEK3tnmK
— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) December 21, 2019
“Sometimes we get so impatient that we play good defense for 13, 14, 15 seconds, and we haven’t gotten a steal yet,” Broome said, “and we don’t know what to do with ourselves because we normally get that steal. Again, for us, it’s not even the dunk, it’s just the steal that energizes us.”
Leads of 11-0 and 17-3 early in the contest showed Leadership had the much better team Saturday. That meant Broome had to bring his team together during timeouts and remind them what they’re playing for.
The early timeout emphasis was on executing set plays, McKinney said. As the game went on, Broome used his career expertise as a school counselor to pass on a broader message.
“It’s like when you take tests and you study hard for it, sometimes you’re gonna go in and the test is gonna be super easy,” Broome said. “It doesn’t mean that you can just say, OK, if I get this wrong, it’s OK. No. You always want to strive to do the best you can.”
Great Leadership ball movement leads to a triple for @mo_Mckinney5. 11-0 Leadership in the first. @PickinSplinters #Roc pic.twitter.com/OgwNK6PcpB
— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) December 21, 2019
The halftime break was scheduled for 10 minutes, but the Lions didn’t even make it to their locker room — they spoke in the corner of the gym for less than two minutes before heading out on the court and getting shots up. They knew their second-half approach wouldn’t change, even with a big lead. Sure, there wouldn’t be the same level of pressing, but it’d still be run, run and run some more.
As Leadership got deep into the bench in the second half, the pace kept up as the Lions quickly closed in on 100 points for the third time this season. The big lead also provided the opportunity for one more thing: a memorable highlight.
In a third quarter timeout, McKinney told Hardeman, “We’ve gotta catch one.” So on one of McKinney’s four steals, with McKinney out in front of everyone and Hardeman trailing close behind, McKinney scooped the ball into the air with his right hand. Up flew Hardeman to throw the ball down, his fourth out of five dunks on the afternoon.
“I already knew what time it was,” Hardeman said.
Yo. @mo_Mckinney5 with the lob to Kennyh Hardeman and Leadership leads big, 67-34, with 5:04 to play in the third. @PickinSplinters #ROC @jml5798 pic.twitter.com/GoMNF6hK2n
— Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) December 21, 2019
McKinney and Hardeman would smile about that play after the game. But when it happened, the alley-oop only led to a quick high-five for McKinney and Hardeman.
After all, the pair had to hustle back on defense, so they could bring more hell, get another steal and run one more time.
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