MONMOUTH — Traip Academy’s scouting report on Monmouth Academy didn’t mention anything about a full-court press.
Traip coach Scott Blake observed the Mustangs’ regular-season finale against Madison and didn’t see Monmouth press at any point.
Monmouth’s full-court pressure undoubtedly caught the Rangers off guard as the Mustangs forced 25 turnovers in a 50-25 victory over Traip on Tuesday in a Western Class C preliminary playoff game. Monmouth will play Dirigo in the regional quarterfinal at the Augusta Civic Center.
“I came up here and watched them play Madison and I talked to a couple coaches in the MVC and they said they had not pressed anybody that they had seen all year,” Blake said. “We weren’t really geared up for it as much as we should have been. Their press, it was like they would press and we would get anxious.”
Monmouth’s full-court pressure kept the Rangers (8-11) off the board through the first 3:15 of the contest. To Traip’s fortune, the Mustangs had a similarly slow start out of the gate in which they didn’t hit a jumper until mid way through the first quarter.
The nerves that come with playing in a playoff game were apparent for both sides.
“We were a little bit too excited,” Monmouth coach Scott Wing said. “I think that played into our defensive intensity, but it impacted us catching the ball. We bobbled a lot of balls. We stole balls and bobbled them and just didn’t capitalize.”
Monmouth’s nerves subsided when its guards started knocking down shots from the outside. Sidney Wilson, who finished second in the Mountain Valley Conference in 3-point shooting, and Tia Day hit a pair of 3s in the first half. The Mustangs (14-5) finished the first quarter on a 13-2 run and built a 25-6 lead at halftime.
“It just kind of goes away naturally as the game goes on,” Wilson said of the nerves. “You start to settle. I don’t remember a certain time, but we did settle down and play a lot better.”
Wilson scored seven of her game-high 14 points in the second quarter. Day finished with eight points. Neither had a field goal in the second half.
“We had talked about not letting Sidney and Tia shoot the wide-open 3 because when they get going they can make them,” Blake said. “Too often we gave them too much space to shoot the basketball.”
The full-court pressure continued to give the Rangers fits in the second quarter. Monmouth’s press, which trapped the corners, put extensive pressure on Traip’s guards. The pressure led to turnovers. The Rangers threw passes over their intended target’s head, traveled in the back court and mishandled the ball in the backcourt. As a result, Traip scored just two points in the second quarter, turning the ball over 16 times in the first half.
“I think it had multiple effects,” Wing said. “I don’t think they’re as deep as we are and that was part of the plan — try to wear them down. It obviously had them frustrated. They traveled three or four times in the first quarter without really anybody pressuring them that hard. All those little things add up over the course of a game.”
The Mustangs hit just four shots in the second half — one from inside the arc — but it didn’t matter as their defense continued to bottle up the Rangers. Traip’s Marina Casey had two of her team’s three buckets in the third quarter. She finished with six points.
Casey was the primary reason why the Mustangs opted to press.
“We knew they had a good post player,” Wilson said. “We wanted to try our zone defense and not let them get set up in their offense. That was a huge part of it.”
Bri Gonzalez, Maddie Amero and Mikayla Cameron all hit 3s in the second half for Monmouth.
The Mustangs led by as many as 30 in the fourth quarter.
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