BRUNSWICK — The Mt. Ararat boys basketball team needed a win.
With persistent and disruptive defense from start to finish, the Eagles earned one in Brunswick on Thursday night. The fact that the 56-54 victory came in a rivalry game on the road was only sweeter.
“Brunswick is a big game for us, so it really feels like a momentum shifter for the season, winning this game,” said Mt. Ararat senior guard Caleb Murphy. “Moving forward, I think we really can have more confidence … knowing that we can win games if we really go out there and play our best.”
With 3.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Murphy poked the ball away from Brunswick’s Brendan Shaw before he could get one last shot up as Mt. Ararat (3-6) snapped a three-game losing skid and secured its first win in 20 days.
Brunswick (4-6) has dropped five games in a row, including its second straight on the final possession. On Tuesday, the Dragons lost to Oceanside, 60-59.
“We need to learn how to win these games,” said Brunswick coach Ben Clark. “We think we are good enough to do it, but at the end of the day, you have to make plays. We make too many mistakes … a lot of our mistakes were mental. We need to clean those up and we’ve got to do it quickly, because it doesn’t get easier.”
Forcing mistakes was the name of the game for the undersized Eagles, who only had two starters 6-foot or taller. Brunswick had four.
The biggest problem down low for Mt. Ararat was 6-foot-5 Trevor Gerrish, who scored 20 points and grabbed 19 rebounds (10 offensive).
“We knew their size would get to us, but it did at times,” Mt. Ararat coach David Dubreuil said. “We knew we just had to put a lot of ball pressure (on them) and force their guards (to) make them play faster than they wanted to.”
Along with seven points, Murphy led the team with five steals and three assists.
Senior forward Andrew Clemons led the Eagles with 13 points and four steals.
“Our plan was to talk on defense,” Clemons said. “Because without communication, you can’t know where other players are if you are being scrappy.”
“We wanted to pressure them full court,” Murphy added. “Not let them have any space, and make sure once we doubled down on larger players, we recovered.”
Brunswick opened the game on a 13-4 run, unfazed by the press. Efficient transitions allowed Mt. Ararat to claw back and take the lead midway through the second quarter, but quick swings and open 3-pointers put the home team back on top at the break, 30-22.
Steals and up-tempo plays from Logan Dubuc (12 points) and Logan Zoulamis (nine points) continued to give the Eagles a chance in third quarter, but the Dragons stayed within reach. With 0.5 seconds left in the quarter, Shaw (five points, four steals, three assists) found Gerrish in the post with an inbounds pass near midcourt to beat the buzzer and cut Mt. Ararat’s lead to 44-42.
“That’s been our season this year, to be honest,” Dubreuil said. “We struggle to get good starts, and then we battle back, and then it just kind of ebbs and flows throughout the game. But I’ll battle with these guys anytime, because I know they’ll always give it their all, and we’re never out of a game with our shooting and our tenacious defense.”
Junior guard Logan Gray added 10 points, and Rylan Ley scored five for the Dragons.
“We’ve got young guards who are getting better and they’re working hard,” Clark said. “We’ve kind of thrown them into the fire a little bit, but I think it’s good for them. They are growing, they’re showing growth. And I think that we’ll be better for this in the end. I know it’s hard now, and it hurts and we want to win these games, but it’s a process, and it doesn’t happen overnight. We’re just going to keep grinding.”
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