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player ready...Midway through the third quarter, Hales Franciscan sophomore Nate Minnoy made an adjustment in the Spartans’ press.
The coaching staff didn’t understand and called time out.
“[Assistant] coach [Derrell] Sanders was yelling in the huddle, `What are you guys doing out there?'” said Hales point guard Jerod Haynes. “I told him: `It’s cool. We got it. Everything is working.’
“After we got a steal, he said: `Great. Keep it going.”‘
The spontaneous change sparked Hales to a 65-47 victory over Breese Central in Friday’s Class A quarterfinals at Carver Arena. Hales (25-6) will face Warrensburg Latham (31-2) in an 11 a.m. semifinal. Latham used a 15-2 run in the fourth quarter to knock off Cissna Park 63-50.
“The kids made the adjustment on their own,” Hales coach Gary London said. “It was something they wanted to do that the coaches didn’t see.”
Because Breese (28-5) was slicing through the Spartans’ full-court press, Minnoy had his teammates pull back into a half-court trap to intensify the pressure. Steals by Haynes, Nathan Hood and Blake Craft along with five more turnovers led to a 17-2 Hales surge.
“We squeezed them by using two bigger guards to set the traps and had our little, quick guards go for steals,” said Minnoy as the Spartans went from a 39-32 deficit to a 49-41 lead with 6 minutes 24 seconds left in the game. “They made some silly passes and we got layups.
“Have I thought about being a coach someday? Actually, I want to keep on playing for a long time.”
Haynes scored 18 points and Minnoy 17 for the Spartans, who closed the game with a 15-3 run. Both players transferred from Mt. Carmel over the summer.
“There were 10 of us who left Mt. Carmel after coach [Mike] Curta was fired,” Haynes said. “Right now that move looks like a blessing.”
Said Minnoy: “For me, let’s say I couldn’t get acclimated to the disciplinary code at Mt. Carmel. Morgan Park and Hyde Park wanted me. I don’t have a father at home, and my mom wanted me to be around a role model like coach London.”
The 6-foot-3-inch, 220-pound Minnoy is Hales’ best post scorer, and Haynes spearheads a talented corps of guards that includes Craft, Lavell Richardson and key reserves such as sophomore Mike Robinson and freshman Jerome Randle.
Those guards will have to solve a Latham three-quarter-court trapping press that ignited a 14-0 run in the third quarter against Cissna Park.
“Our press started wearing on them,” said Latham’s Andy Calmes, who had 27 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Latham uses the long arms of the 6-6 Calmes, 6-6 Korte Long (14 points, three steals, two blocks), 6-4 Chase Traughber and 6-4 Jeff Doyle to disrupt teams trying to pass through the pressure.