Defense, defense and more defense. That’s the key for the Washington boys’ basketball team as it approaches the midpoint in the season.
After nine games the Pam Pack stands at 5-4 (0-2 Coastal Conference) and third-year coach Steve Flowers said that in order for Washington to have a successful second half of the year it must tighten up on the defensive end of the floor.
“We have to get better at defending the ball,” Flowers said. “We have to be able to go out and defend without fouling.”
Washington has a week off before it returns to action on Jan. 4 at home against Havelock and you can take one guess what the emphasis at practice will be during the break.
“We’re going to be working on defense,” Flowers said. “We’ve been doing it the last couple of days and we will continue to do that. We have to get better on defense.”
The Pam Pack has played a majority of zone throughout the season but a solid showing against West Craven in which the team played man has given Flowers cause to explore his options.
“We’ve been playing a lot of zone but when we played West Craven I was impressed with how we matched up against them,” Flowers said. “So we’re going to try to play a little more man.”
Defensively, effort is not an issue, foul trouble is.
“That’s the big thing, we play hard on defense but we commit a lot of fouls,” Flowers said. “We’ve had two or three guys foul out about three or four times this year. When your playing a zone that should never happen.”
As the Pam Pack makes its push toward the postseason Flowers said a pleasant surprise has been the play of his underclassmen.
“We have a lot of guys that came back from last year but we brought up a few guys that have been pretty good,” Flowers said. “John Whitney is one of them, but there have been a few others. I wasn’t sure if they would be ready for varsity but they’ve been all right.
“We’re going to bring up Jamond Ebron. He played well during the Christmas tournament and I think he’s going to be pretty good.”
The upperclassmen have been pretty good too, as Stevie Green, D.J. Bell, Stephon Moore and Ty Copeland give Flowers plenty of options on the offensive side of the ball.
“One thing I like is that we have a lot of balanced scoring,” Flowers said. “We’re getting 10 or 12 points from two or three different guys each game and that’s a good thing.”
As Washington prepares for the heart of conference play Flowers is looking for Bell and the others to expand their leadership roles.
“Bell is one of our captains and we are looking for a lot of leadership from him. We haven’t gotten a lot of it yet from him but I think it’s going to come,” Flowers said. “He’s a steady influence on the team when he’s on the floor and we need that.”