Defensive-minded ANC having resurgent season
BRYN ATHYN >> It was all a mindset.
After an up and down season last year, the Academy of the New Church boys basketball players committed themselves to a long offseason of strength and conditioning work. They decided they weren’t going to let anyone push them around anymore and dedicated themselves to becoming a defensive monster of a team.
So far, the results speak for themselves as the Lions improved to 11-4 after a 75-40 takedown of Abington Friends School on Friday.
“It’s just the mindset,” ANC junior guard Glenn Sabb said. “Coming into the season we looked at it as a whole different mindset, we come in ready to work every day at practice. If we continue playing the way we’re playing now, we can win a ‘chip.”
The Lions are relentless on defense the entire length of the floor. ANC loves to press, but if teams somehow manage to get through that, they have to contend with the Lions’ aggressive man-to-man defending in the halfcourt.
ANC coach Kevin Givens said his team has been averaging about 25 turnovers per game and his guys just love to attack the ball. Their aggression does lead to fouls, as AFS got to the free throw line plenty on Friday, but the results far outweigh any whistle-based drawbacks their style may create.
“Our postseason and preseason workouts have paid off for us,” Givens said. “I’ve had most of these guys since they were freshmen so we’ve been conditioning since they’ve been here. They’re bigger, they’re faster and they’re stronger right now. We’ve played mostly man to man all season long.”
On Friday, the Lions forced 22 Kangaroo turnovers and even when they didn’t pocket a steal or come up with the ball, AFS found little space to operate offensively. Any drive to the rim saw a blue uniform get engulfed by two or three white jerseys as the Lions swarmed to the ball, forced a difficult shot and usually grab the rebound.
After pouring in so much time to their fitness and conditioning, it was almost imperative that the Lions see results quickly. They didn’t have to wait long to see the results of their work as they defeated state power Westtown, a team stocked with Division I products, in early December.
It was an early eye-opener that this season was going to be different.
“We focus on defense and we know if we bring that pressure on defense, we can win against anybody,” Sabb said. “When we come to play, no one can stop us. After that game, we felt like we could play with anybody and we wanted to make a statement and let everyone else know that we were coming to play.”
The defense has been the constant all season but ANC has come a long way on the offensive end. Givens noted this isn’t his best shooting team, but the guys have become very sound in playing team basketball.
Sabb echoed that, saying it was a lot of individual stuff early in the year but the team has meshed well as they’ve gone through the schedule. Friday, the Lions were quite good at moving the ball and finding the open man, with Jordon Dawkins cashing in on a lot of open looks set up by teammates.
“They like each other and get along,” Givens said. “When you have a team that buys into the defensive concept and want to see each other succeed, something special happens.”
The team’s play has allowed the coaches to challenge them a bit as well. Givens noted that after one game, they’ll take the turnover number for that game and tell the players they want five more the next time out.
ANC has just three seniors on the roster and none started on Friday. Givens noted the team is active and invested in the community and in turn has drawn well at home games and there’s excitement about what the underclassmen-heavy group is building toward.
In his 25 years, Givens has had some really good teams, a couple even garnering national rankings. But there’s something about this group that’s just different.
“I think defensively, this is my best team,” Givens said. “It’s not because we’re winning games, when we were nationally ranked that was because we were winning games, this team is fast, quick and smart on defense. They want to steal basketballs. They’re not going to let anyone past them, they’d better not.”
