Tri-Village shooter Trey Sagester rises to score over a Jonathan Alder defender during Monday’s Holiday Hoopla basketball showcase in Columbus. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Why can some high school basketball players shoot the ball better than others? Well nearly every coach you ask sums it up this way…those who can really work at it. And those who can’t…don’t.
Columbus, OH – In the halls outside the Columbus Convention Center on Monday there was no shortage of basketball minds – the community couch coaches, the self-promoters, and baseline iPhone online Emmy winners – all willing to wax eloquent to anyone willing to listen.
It was media row at the state tournament on steroids…with no official credential necessary to mingle and hang out as a wannabe, willing to impress someone – anyone – with your basketball IQ.
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Where dunks are wowed over that don’t mean anything…the final minute of the game when you’re winning, or trailing, by 20 points.
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Where you shoot, and shoot, and shoot from range you haven’t mastered until you finally hit a three-pointer…then turn and flex, flashing the ‘three’ as you take a victory lap back downcourt, only to be passed by someone racing to score because you aren’t paying attention.
Where so-called three and four-star players must have the ball at all times, because after all…it is a showcase.
What if Izzo’s here, or Diebler, and they don’t see me at my AAU best? It could happen. It’s a Monday and they’re somewhere watching someone. Why not me?
But on this Monday – this past Monday – the talk in the hallway, at least by the wise, was about the exhibition of basketball just shared by the Division VII Delphos St. John Blue Jays. Who, on an otherwise last-minute-holiday-shopping Monday, had just put on a show of how the game can be played by five players – none bigger than 6’3” – coordinated and committed to share the basketball, make the extra play, and so skilled in shooting the ball that they became the standard of comparison for the rest of the day.
Known for their own three-star player, senior Cameron Elwer, the Blue Jays flipped the script on a very fine Division V St. Clairsville team who had come to Columbus bent on denying Elwer’s 30-point-per-game average, daring the rest of the St. John lineup to beat them if they could. And they did just that.
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St. Clairsville did, in fact, slow Elwer, but instead of playing frustrated, the Furman University recruit simply passed the ball to an open teammate…in this case his brother, Andrew (23 points)…and let him shoot the eyes out of the basket, as well as the heart out of St. Clairsville.
St. Clairsville, however, is a capable team, and changed strategies and focus to play a more straight-up style of defense on the brothers Elwer, only to suffer the consequences of the remaining three players being incorporated. They beat the Red Devils repeatedly on medium-range shots and run-out layups in transition. At the conclusion of a thorough 75-58 beating the difference was Andrew Elwer’s 23 points. And St. Clairsville coach Ryan Clifford had to admit…that they had been done in by an impressive example of ‘team’ basketball.
“We’re pretty good,” said Clifford, afterwards. “But they’re obviously better. It helps to have guys in the same family, but they really share the basketball well.
Cam Elwer connects for three of his 17 points in Monday’s 75-58 win over Division V Jonathan Alder in the Columbus Holiday Hoopla showcase.
“I thought we did a good job on Cam, but to his credit he never forced it. He made the extra play and they’re almost impossible to guard when he does that. They guard, and they can shoot, and I assume they’ll make a deep run in the tournament.”
Several hours later Josh Sagester’s Tri-Village Patriots gave their own command performance of team basketball against a very fine Division V team from nearby Jonathan Alder.
Playing that same familiar style of sharing the ball, defending and rebounding…and an impressive perimeter shooting performance by senior Trey Sagester (28 points)…the Patriots handed Alder their second defeat of the year with an inarguable 68-44 verdict.
“They played team basketball,” said a hallway observer, speaking of St. John’s win over St. Clairsville.
“Yeah, but you gotta’ make the open shot, too,” said another. “And those kids could shoot. And this ain’t no high school gym. This is a tough place to shoot with all that wide-open space. I’m tellin’ you…those kids could shoot!”
An issue that Delphos coach Aaron Elwer addressed afterwards.
“We adjusted after some early misses,” said Elwer. “It’s more like a tournament environment, and you have to be ready for the uncomfortable situation, and overcome that. That’s why it’s good to play in events like this. You learn from it.”
It’s also why Delphos St. John players show up at the high school gym in the mornings at 6 a.m. to shoot…and shoot….and shoot all throughout the year. Thousands upon thousands of shots, taking nothing for granted come those Mondays in mid-December. Someone on their schedule might be home in bed at 6 a.m. But not Cam Elwer.
And not Trey Sagester, who defies the traditional argument that it’s hard to mix football with basketball. While none of the Delphos players (at least the principal players) play football, Sagester is the starting quarterback on the Patriots’ football team that went 12-1 this year before losing in the regional final round to Coldwater.
Like Elwer, Sagester, the coach’s son, has his own set of keys to the beautiful new gym in New Madison and shoots tirelessly all year long. And his five made three-pointers, all at strategic points of Monday’s win over Jonathan Alder, were testimony of his ability and preparation to execute in an uncomfortable environment, and overcome.
It’s why, when either rises to shoot the open three-point shot, opposing coaches shoulders suddenly slump. Chances of them missing? Not good!
Free throws, an oft-criticized failure in contemporary basketball, were on full display Monday. Teams that could, did. Teams that couldn’t, did not. Delphos is a team that customarily shoots 80%, or better, from the line. Tri-Village, likewise, took the free points standing still as an added bonus to their preparation.
Were Tri-Village and Delphos the two best teams at the Holiday Hoopla showcase because of a one-off performance? I can’t, and won’t say because I didn’t see them all. But I did see enough to make the obvious comparison. That some teams just prepare harder – different – than others in the off-season, and continue to refine (at 6 a.m.) once the season begins.
“We’re not making shots. We gotta’ go back to the gym and shoot,” Jonathan Alder coach Derek Dicke lamented about his own team’s failures…a team known for its preparation.
Suffice it to say, Delphos St. John and Tri-Village were already there…as they’ll be on Christmas Eve, on Christmas Day, whenever there’s a chance. Tri-Village has Division I Kettering Fairmont on Saturday.
David vs. Goliath.
And they won’t be unprepared.
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