White Plains, AL – White Plains turns up the defense, takes down Anniston on its floor to reach 4A Northeast Regional
By Al Muskewitz
Chris Randall gathered his White Plains basketball team in the locker room and told them they were one of 16 teams left in the state playoffs. What he didn’t say, but Carter Johnson did for him, was if the Wildcats keep playing the kind of defense they have been this post season, they’ve got a chance to, the improving junior post said, “make it all the way.” The Wildcats delivered one of the best defensive efforts Randall has ever seen one of his defense-first teams play Tuesday night. They held Anniston to four points on its own floor in the first and third quarters while shutting down the Bulldogs 46-33 in the Class 4A Northeast subregional.
The Wildcats now face Etowah in the Northeast Regional semifinals Saturday at Jacksonville State. “This is as good a defensive game as any team I have ever coached has played,” Randall said. “We pride ourselves on defense and the charges and guys being in gaps and just battling on the glass … It was a total team effort. “It’s because we preach it every day from the time we get them when they’re in the seventh grade. Defense is how we measure how much you care about us. If you’re not willing to guard, if you’re not willing to take a charge then you don’t really care about winning. When those guys are bought into their roles and they buy into the game plan, then it’s fun to watch. “Everybody’s bought into the game plan. Everybody did their job. They knew what we were trying to take away from that particular player and they did it. To hold Anniston to four points in the third quarter at their place, that’s hard to do.”
Randall particularly cited Josh Wheeler’s defense. Wheeler hit two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, but he also took a pair of charges that got the coach even more excited. Johnson also staved off relentless attacks by Anniston big men Hezekiah Harris and Javen Croft. “We’ve been watching film on them and 24 (Harris) has been having some pretty good games,” Johnson said. “We knew if we didn’t box out hard we weren’t going to win, so we were ready. We’re just not ready to be done. We’ve got to keep on pushing.”Anniston guarded the Wildcats well, too, it’s just White Plains had better luck getting the easy points.
These are the kinds of games Randall likes to say “baskets are like touchdowns,” and they were that hard to come by on this night. The teams were tied 4-4 after the first quarter and White Plains led only 16-14 at halftime. The Bulldogs were 5-for-20 from the field in the first half, and 7-for-30 through three quarters with 11 turnovers. White Plains was 6-for-20 from the field in the first half, but 6-for-13 in the third. “They packed it in and made shots and we didn’t make any shots,” Anniston coach Torry Brown said. “They play us like that every year. We just didn’t make any shots. They limited us for the most part to one shot so we didn’t get any second chance opportunities, didn’t get any easy buckets in transition. That’s the name of the game, which team can get the most easy points and they got more easy points than we did tonight.” [read more…]
