By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Less than seven minutes remained in Tuesday’s Rochester City Athletic Conference (RCAC) matchup at Monroe High School, and the hosts found themselves clinging to a two-point lead. This after the Red Jackets had pressed and ran in the open court on the way to building a 17-point advantage early in the third quarter.
Terrell Cunningham needed one possession out of his squad, and the first-year head coach got just that.
“We know we can run, but the big thing especially in sectionals and going forward is those one-possession games, those two-possession games and being able to slow it down and to execute when you need it,” he said.
Gavin Jones drew a trio of defenders before dishing off to teammate Jordan Reis who finished along the baseline. The basket was the start of a 9-2 run, and Monroe (15-4) went on to defeat McQuaid (8-12), 68-59.
“Being quick doesn’t always work to your benefit,” Cunningham said. “You got to be able to shoot and execute plays. We were able to execute and that was the biggest thing for today.”
The sequence included eight passes, and Monroe patiently switched sides of the floor three times before striking.
The effort came against a McQuaid 2-3 zone defense that had all but stopped Monroe in its tracks. While basic in its initial appearance, the Jesuit Knights extended their front court to close down on Monroe’s shooters at the 3-point arc. The alignment gave the look of four around one with senior center Quinn Wilson manning the lane for much of the time.
Jones along with backcourt mates Taj Mullins and Navareon Patton moved the ball along the perimeter making McQuaid’s defense have to adjust.
Mullins made an initial post entry into Reis at the free throw line. Reis turned and looked to drive the lane but was met by Wilson with Jaiyden Jones also arriving on the spot.
He sent an inside-out pass to his teammate along the right wing. Jones, seeing an advantage, put the ball to floor and looked to attack the basket. Reis stepped into the gray area (not the post and not necessarily the perimeter) on the baseline about seven feet from the basket. Jones found his teammate for the bucket.
“It’s attention to detail,” Cunningham said. “The game plan was what the game plan was. Get the ball to the high post, but don’t force it. We knew we were going to have to run half-court sets.”
Leading 25-16 at halftime, Reis netted seven as Monroe opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run to take its largest lead at 33-16.
McQuaid chipped away at the deficit.
Jaiyden Jones finished a pair of layups, and Henry Fox hit in the lane. Andrew Gerenski and Brayden Woodard combined on a high-low feed with Woodard completing the play, and the Jesuit Knights were within 10 at 38-28.
“The lesson is you got to come off the bus ready to go,” said first-year McQuaid head coach, Taylor Roth. “I didn’t feel like we were.
“I thought we were out of whack. All the things we worked on in scout, we weren’t doing. It just took us a halftime to go in and remind them what we worked on. Once we did, there wasn’t anything we weren’t prepared for. We just had to tighten up on the things we needed to do.”
McQuaid then took advantage of back-to-back and-one opportunities at the free throw line in which the Jesuit Knights grabbed offensive rebounds from the missed opportunities. By the time the sequence ended, McQuaid had scored six points without Monroe having a possession.
Monroe’s lead had been cut to four at 40-36 entering the fourth quarter.
Jaiyden Jones opened the fourth-quarter scoring with a bucket off an inbound play.
Reis answered for Monroe with two from the free-throw line.
Fox followed with a pair of his own at the stripe, and it was a 42-40 game in favor of Monroe with 6:47 remaining.
It was as close as McQuaid would get for the rest of the contest.
“We fought hard,” Roth said. “I’m proud of them. They fought ‘til the final horn sounded.”
Monroe’s Will McKinney converted 13-of-14 free throws in the fourth quarter as part of a team-high 23-point effort.
Reis had 13 points in the win, and Jones scored 10. This despite being forced to the bench with 1:19 remaining when he picked up his fifth foul.
“From day one, my biggest thing to the guys is that I never want to be in a spot where a team can basically game plan for one guy,” Cunningham said. “Positionless basketball is a term that is overused, but for me it’s about sharing the wealth. Everybody having their role but understanding that any given night can be anybody’s game. We believe in incorporating guys and putting guys in spots and just being like yo, execute and get the job done. That’s what we did tonight.”
The win was the fourth straight and 12th in the past 13 games for Monroe. The Red Jackets are currently the third seed in Class AA2. Monroe hosts East on Thursday to close the regular season. A 4:45 p.m. tip-off is scheduled.
McQuaid’s Jaiyden Jones led all scorers with 25 points. Fox added 13. Wilson had seven. The five seed in Class AAA, McQuaid awaits the brackets that will be released later this weekend.
McQUAID JESUIT (8-12)
Jaiyden Jones 9 7-10 25, Lucas Wachter 2 0-0 6, Gianni Hahn 0 0-2 0, Quinn Wilson 1 5-7 7, Brayden Woodard 1 0-0 2, Henry Fox 5 2-2 13, Gavin Vanderwal 1 0-0 3, Christian Jordan 1 0-0 2, Andrew Gerenski 1 0-0 2 TOTALS 21 14-21 — 59
MONROE (15-4)
Gavin Jones 3 4-6 10, Taj Mullins 2 0-0 4, Will McKinney 3 16-18 23, Jordan Reis 5 2-2 13, Kyair Calloway 3 1-2 7, Khalil Herring 1 0-0 2, Jermaine Montgomery 0 0-0 0, Navareon Patton 3 0-0 7, Marcus Freeman 1 0-0 2 TOTALS 21 23-28 — 68
McQUAID JESUIT 9 7 20 24 — 59
MONROE 11 11 15 28 — 68
3-point goals: McQUAID JESUIT 4 (Wachter 2, Fox 1, Vanderwal 1); MONROE 3 (McKinney 1, Reis 1, Patton 1).
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