The blueprint is pretty clear just a few weeks into the season — Miller plans to take advantage of each and every member of its athletic roster, pressing teams into submission. It might have taken longer than Mavericks coach Scott Willard had hoped, stretching until the third quarter, but when the aggressive defense shone, that press bent St. Anne’s-Belfield to one knee and provided Miller all it needed as the team rolled in the second half to an 86-51 win on the road.
“With this particular group I feel like any five minute run can be the difference in the game,” Willard said. “We can play what I thought was poor basketball to start — poor defense, poor shot selection — and then put together good basketball and really turn the tide.”
Were it not for the performance from Chase Cannon in the first half, the story might have been different as the senior’s 3-point shooting single-handedly kept Miller in the game in the first quarter, and put them ahead midway through the second.
“It was kind of abnormal to start like that,” Cannon said. “I was trying to do all I could to keep us in it. It’s an away game at a local school so the crowd was into it. It was great and bad at the same time. It was fun and when we made the comeback, it was even better.”
St. Anne’s took advantage of its strength in the first quarter, the size advantage in the paint given by Aaron Stinnie, Jeff Jones and Brett Johnson to take a 9-0 lead as they overwhelmed the Mavericks on the glass. But Cannon quickly made it a 4-point contest thanks to his sniping ability to help his team survive the rocky start.
On a night where his outside shots just wouldn’t fall, Andrew White quietly helped Miller in the second with rebounding and put backs to aid Cannon pacing the Mavericks out front for the first time with a little over four minutes to play until halftime. Going into the break, Miller saw the duo put the team up by four.
“Chase carried us in the first half and was really the reason it was a single digit (deficit) we faced and that’s because he’s a high caliber scholarship type player,” Willard said. “And Andrew, even when his shot is not going, which is very rare, he’s going to give us steals, rebounds and assists and play unselfishly. Even on an off night, he affects the game positively.”
Then the press took over in the third. A 22-4 run sparked by one steal after another and baskets in transition was the explosion Willard was waiting for, and at the same time, so was Saints coach Brian Kent.
“They made their run and we knew they were going to do that,” Kent said.
The Mavericks entered the fourth up a healthy 21 points and didn’t let off the throttle in the fourth as its bench continued to provided help as nine different players put in a field goal.
For Miller, White tied Cannon for a team best 18 points, but the Kansas commit also led his team in rebounds with six. Devon Anderson had a huge second half along with Travis Hester as both finished with 11 points. Josh Majors added eight points while fellow guards Grayson Gunner and Janiel Jenkins each had seven.
Johnson led St. Anne’s with 12 points while Stinnie had 11 points and a big night on the glass with eight rebounds. Justin Paton hit a pair of three pointers and was 6 for 6 from the free throw line to finish with 12 points. Jones had four points and five rebounds.
“We really put it on our point guard, Darius Wynn, to get it on our type of pace,” Kent said. “Really spread the floor, make them guard us and use the entire half court… I think we did that and I think we really did that overall in the first sixteen minutes.”
Miller (6-1) gets the next two weeks off before resuming play on December 28th in at the GSK Holiday Invitational in Raleigh.
STAB (1-4) has Potomac at home on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
