RUMFORD – The Mountain Valley coaching staff made some floor alterations in practice Monday to prepare the Falcons for Tuesday night’s tilt with Winthrop.
“They taped up the halfcourt with lines leading to the baseline,” senior guard Byron Glaus said, “and what we worked on was trying to keep our angles on (Winthrop’s) dribble penetration, keeping them to the outside and out of the middle.”
The Falcons did just that, and as a result, the Ramblers were never in the middle of the game.
Mountain Valley held Winthrop to just four points in the first quarter and rolled to a 63-37 win at Puiia Gymnasium. With the victory, the Falcons (17-0) clinched the Mountain Valley Conference regular-season title and also secured a spot in next week’s conference championship game.
“We just thought we needed to cut off their penetration. They’re more of a one-one-one basketball team,” Falcons coach Dave Gerrish said.
With their slashing guards and forwards shut off from the paint, the Ramblers (14-3) were forced to take just as many shots from outside the 3-point line (11) as inside in the first half. The result was just 27 percent shooting from the floor.
“We want to make sure going into the tournament that we’re going to be a good man-to-man team as well as a halfcourt trap team,” Glaus said. “If we can shut down penetration like that, we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
Glaus made sure the offense was in pretty good shape, too, scoring 14 of his game-high 16 points in the first half as the Falcons converted 63 percent of their field goal attempts.
“It’s just a great feeling to know that if you miss a couple of shots, somebody is going to pick up the slack, and all you’ve got to do is dig down and play defense,” Glaus said. “That’s something that a lot of us have come around to this year. When our offense isn’t going, we just get down on defense and it kind of flows off of that.”
Andy Shorey matched Glaus with 16 points. Marcus Palmer added seven and Travis Fergola six. Sam Leclerc led Winthrop with eight points.
The Falcons opened a 6-0 lead to begin the game and never trailed. D.J. Gerrish found Palmer open in the left corner just in time for him to drill a trey at the buzzer and give them a 13-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Glaus nailed three 3-pointers in the second quarter, including back-to-back bombs late, to widen the margin to 34-14 at the half. The Falcons actually got hotter in the third quarter, shooting 70 percent from the field to extend the rout.
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