Inside the Numbers: High Point at Presbyterian

 

High Point's D'Maurian Williams paced the Panthers' winning effort with 20 points Saturday. (Photo:  High Point Athletics)

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CLINTON, S.C. – One week ago – and with several days to prepare – High Point coach Alan Huss referred to Presbyterian as “complex.” This may not seem to be much of a compliment, but when somebody like Huss who is so attentive to detail – and so much of a basketball “head” – says it, the intent is clear.

So, after Huss’ Panthers made the trip to Clinton and spent 40 minutes exchanging pleasantries in an 84-72 victory, what exactly did he mean by “complex”? Let’s ask, as we go…Inside the Numbers!

“Radford a year ago ran a lot of the same stuff (as Presbyterian) that a lot of people ran years ago. A lot of the stuff they run is stuff we ran when I was playing,” Huss said. “They have new, modern wrinkles on it is probably how I’d say it. They give you a look and they try to exploit it. They went with a big-big lineup tonight and they tried to exploit those 1-4 switches, off-ball, sealing at the rim, slip you a little bit.

“You have to deal with all that and then you have to deal with a dynamic player in Mincy in on-ball actions. They’re hard. They’re hard to deal with. You don’t ever really get comfortable, because a lot of what you guard is not what you guard the rest of the season. They’re pretty good at the stuff everybody else is doing, too. The slot-ball screen stuff with Mincy is really tough to deal with, too. (Presbyterian coach Quinton Ferrell) does a good job of just picking on whatever matchup they think they can exploit. Especially when (guard) Kezza (Giffa) got into a little bit of foul trouble, I think it took the teeth out of him a little bit. You can probably say that for (forward) Kimani (Hamilton), too. It took the teeth out of what we were doing a little bit in those switches. I don’t want to make excuses. It was effective – doing what they did was effective. It was hard to deal with.”

• High Point had two unsustainable numbers Saturday. One went in its favor and the other did not. The second number got a bit of a disappointed laugh and head shake from Huss. Let’s start with that one.

Presbyterian snared a somewhat unbelievable 17 offensive rebounds, leading to 16 second-chance points. Eight of those boards came from post players Kaleb Scott and Jaylen Peterson. Huss was – as one might imagine – not enamored of that number.

“We were good and we had one bad stretch at the end of the first half,” Huss said. “They got three in two possessions. We came back to start the second half, and – more than anything, I think we’ve got to toughen up. They went big-big. It’s a give-and-take deal. Their bigger guys had a hard time guarding our thin and elusive guys on the perimeter facing them in our space. Our guys had a hard time rebounding. It was a battle of those two styles of play.

“The ones that were disappointing were the ones where we just didn’t have our hands up or it was a straight 50-50 ball and they were the aggressor. I thought they outcompeted us for probably 26 of the 40 minutes today. That’s the disappointing piece.”

“We had to really jump our guys in the first half,” Ferrell said. “We were watching guys shoot the ball and I’ve got my three and my four not crashing the glass. Why does it take us to go crazy and lose our mind to get us to do that? Why don’t we show up from the opening tap? I think that’s been some of our issues. If we had the effort we had in the second half, it’s obviously a different game. We dug ourselves – they’re really good. They don’t need a 15-point lead at the half. They don’t need any help. For us to be down 15 and cut it to one in the second half, it shows the potential of my group, but obviously to get over the hump, you’ve got to be more consistent during the 40 minutes of the game.”

• The other unsustainable number came from High Point’s first-half offensive performance. The Panthers shot 71 percent in the opening 20, and though their final shooting percentage was 60.4, mentioning the hot shooting also drew a laugh from Huss before he reflected a bit.

“I was disappointed – obviously that’s not sustainable. We all knew that,” Huss said. “The piece that was a little bit disappointing was how they (got back into the game). That’s precisely what we talked about at halftime. They’re going to turn up the heat a little bit in the half court and the full court. They’re going to put their hands on us. They’re going to be a little bit more aggressive. I just thought we had some really soft turnovers to start the (second) half that really got them going offensively. Credit to them for doing it, but it was just a little disappointing because that was the entire halftime speech. Clearly, I’ve got to improve my delivery.”

“I thought in the first half the ball stuck too much,” Ferrell said. “That was something that I really got onto my guys about. We’ve got breakdown basketball where we’ve got different things that we do, and we weren’t doing it. Whoever had the ball just kept it. Everybody else was just standing. Switching defenses can do that to you if you’re not intentional about running your offense and doing different things to combat that and attack that. I thought in the second half we were much better. That’s why we scored 41 points and we won the second half. I just thought that in the first half, we gave away a few possessions just by our own doing of not moving the ball, cutting, setting ball screens, slipping out, and doing the different things we worked on.”

• Presbyterian – yet again – fought back from a deficit and was right in the game at the under-4 break before the opponent pulled away late. The Blue Hose trailed by 15 at the half and as many as 17 in the second before working back within a single point on a late Kory Mincy triple before High Point went on to score 14 of the final 17 points in the game.

“I just thought – obviously, they’re a very talented team and they’re explosive,” Ferrell said. “You’ve just got to be very sharp (against them). I thought down the stretch in a couple of those possessions we did stuff pretty well, but they jumped up and made some big shots. I think some of our issues – we got some good looks, and Mincy had a wide-open three that would have cut it back to one. We kind of missed our opportunities down the stretch and they made theirs.”

“All in all, I just thought their ability to make plays – D’Maurian Williams made a huge three off the dribble in isolation with a late clock. Bobby Pettiford gets downhill with his left hand and gets to the rim and gets an and-one. Those are more just one-on-one plays. They’ve got guys that can shoot the crap out of it. That makes it tricky.”

“I just thought we played more inspired in the second half. I thought we competed at a higher level in the second half than we did the first half. They had a ton of points in the paint in the first half. In the second half, I thought because we competed more, we cut that almost in half.”

• Speaking of Williams, the grad student drew praise from Huss for his performance. While Ferrell called out the three in front of the Blue Hose bench, Huss dished out additional superlatives past the 20-point, 7-for-10 shooting effort.

“His actions today – he made some really big offensive plays and some really big defensive plays,” Huss said. “When we were reeling, I thought Coach Ferrell ran a great after time out play, and they sealed our 1-4 switch on the back side and had a layup. He made a terrific defensive play to get that steal when we were having a really difficult time getting stops. I thought that really steadied us. I thought that was maybe the defensive play of the game. I’m probably more proud of him about that than anything else. He makes really steadying plays. He was very efficient tonight. He’s mature and he’s very coachable.”

• Mincy and forward Jaylen Peterson both had big days for Presbyterian. Mincy led all scorers with 24, drilling 5-of-10 from deep and 3-of-4 from the line. Peterson snared 12 caroms and added eight points. They — along with forward Kobe Stewart and guard Jamahri Harvey — turned in big days for the Blue Hose.

Ferrell on Peterson:  “He’s been a guy that I’ve been high on coming into the season. This is a huge year for him and his development. He started the year being our starting four-man. When (center) Jonah Pierce went down, I had to bring him off the bench, because he and Kaleb (Scott) were my only fives. He’s done a really good job. I challenge him a lot, because I think he’s got a chance to be a special player in the Big South. Seeing what he did the other night at Winthrop and for him to carry that forward tonight for the second game in a row, I just need him to keep building on that. I think he can be a difference-maker for our program. I think he could be a Defensive Player of the Year guy when it’s all said and done.”

Ferrell on Mincy:  “Kory’s my point guard, I probably spend more time with him and Quadir Pettaway one-on-one than any other guys on my team because they play point guard. I really wanted to get Kory back to the level that I know he can play at. He’s been fine, but I know he’s got another gear to get to. I think in his last two performances he’s starting to be the guy that I expect him to be day in and day out – on both sides. For me to give you the label of a great player, you’ve got to do it on both ends. I think he’s up there in terms of the best guards in the league. I don’t think anybody does what he does on the defensive end, takes the challenge, guards guys and gets after them. He’s then able to still go on the offensive end and score the ball and get assists. He’s a guy that I think is a special player, but I think in the last two games, he’s starting to get to where I want him to get to. He wants that. I coach him hard. He’s a guy I got onto pretty hard at the half trying to spark our team. He responded to me big-time in the second half. I’m super proud of him.”

• The final point comes on the Mincy three that cut the High Point lead to one late. The three would have given the Blue Hose the lead, but a play initially called goaltending was wiped out after a monitor review during the break. Ferrell commented on the possible momentum swing after the game.

“Those situations – momentum plays are obviously a big deal,” Ferrell said. “We’ve got to control what we can control. Those things happen in games. Hopefully, they start happening to the opponent more than they happen to us.”

Both sides return to league play Wednesday night. High Point travels to Radford, Va., to take on the Highlanders in the Dedmon Center. Presbyterian remains home and welcomes nearby rival USC Upstate to the Templeton Center. Both games are set for a 7:00 (Eastern) tip, with streaming coverage available via ESPN+.

HIGH POINT 84, PRESBYTERIAN 72

HIGH POINT (19-5, 7-2)

Hamilton 5-8 6-9 17, Bodo Bodo 4-7 1-2 9, Giffa 3-7 6-6 12, Johnston 2-2 0-0 5, Williams 7-10 4-5 20, Anderson 0-1 0-0 0, Benham 3-3 0-0 9, Hildebrandt 1-2 0-0 2, Pettiford 4-6 2-3 10, Thiam 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 29-48 19-25 84.

PRESBYTERIAN (9-15, 2-7 BIG SOUTH)

Scott 2-4 0-1 4, King 2-5 0-0 0 4, Stewart 5-19 2-2 12, Mincy 8-17 3-4 24, Harvey 4-8 6-7 17, Peterson 2-7 4-4 8, Pettaway 1-2 0-0 3, Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Parrish 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-62 15-18 72.

Halftime:  High Point 46-31. 3-Point goals:  Presbyterian 9-25 (King 0-1, Stewart 0-5, Mincy 5-10, Harvey 3-7, Pettaway 1-2), High Point 7-12 (Hamilton 1-1, Giffa 0-1, Johnston 1-1, Williams 2-4, Benham 3-3, Hildebrandt 0-1, Thiam 0-1). Fouled out:  NA.  Rebounds:  High Point 33 (Bodo 9), Presbyterian 32 (Peterson 12). Total fouls:  Presbyterian 21, High Point 16. Technicals:  NA.

Points off turnovers:  Presbyterian 17, High Point 13.  Points in the paint:  High Point 40, Presbyterian 24. Second-chance points:  Presbyterian 16, High Point 9.  Fast-break points:  Presbyterian 11, High Point 9.  Bench points:  High Point 21, Presbyterian 11.