Methodical Methacton moves past Norristown for 10-0 start
WEST NORRITON >> There’s a definite line between just running around on a basketball court and moving with a purpose.
Saturday afternoon, Methacton’s boys’ basketball team showed it does much more of the latter than it does the former. Knowing the best way to beat Norristown’s aggressive and athletic defense was to use it against the Eagles, the Warriors’ methodical movement generated an extremely efficient outing on the offensive end.
Crisp cuts, sharp passes and controlled finishes kept adding up as Methacton improved to 10-0 with a 69-44 win over host Norristown.
“We go over plays at least 20 minutes a day at practice,” Warriors junior Cam Chilson said. “It starts with knowing the tendencies of everyone. I know where Brett (Byrne) likes to go, I know when Cole (Hargrove) wants the ball and if he’s going to post up, I know to cut. It comes from playing and now that we’ve played 10 games, it’s starting to flow.”
Chilson,a 6-foot guard in his first varsity season, showed why all that repetition and work moving on offense with a purpose is so important. He scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting and spent most of the second half feasting off passes from his teammates while displaying a versatile package of shots around the rim with a deft touch.
Normally, a team that turns the ball over 16 times is going to struggle. Methacton didn’t seem to stumble at all even with that number and instead negated its giveaways with 18 assists and an incredible efficiency in the second half on 17-of-23 shooting thanks in part to all those attempts right at the rim.
“That’s what Norristown is always going to do, they’re known for pressuring the basketball and they’re known for getting up on you,” Methacton coach Pat Lockard said. “That’s why we had Cole bring the ball up a ton for us. It gave us a matchup against a defender that was not as quick, we saw on film (Eagles guard) DJ Johnson does such a great job of picking people’s pockets and getting up and guarding.
“We talked about the path of least resistance and felt Cole had it. In the halfcourt, we just executed, it wasn’t like we were running complicated plays, we just took care of the basketball and finished.”
Norristown (6-3, 0-1 PAC) scored the first basket of the game but Methacton (10-0, 4-0 PAC) had the next 11 points. The Eagles, paced by six points from Johnson, battled back and trailed just 18-14 after the first quarter but the hosts just couldn’t keep up with the methodical offense the Warriors kept finding.
Byrne had an outstanding afternoon with a game-high 19 points plus six rebounds and seven assists and barely missed himself, going 8-of-10 from the floor. The senior guard, who was a role player on the 2019-20 district title team, saw the value of movement that winter and feels like this current team has really started to grasp how much of a difference-maker true team basketball can be.
“It’s the unselfish basketball,” Byrne said. “It’s something coaches harp on all the time and the second everyone buys into that and starts playing for each other rather than individually, that’s when we start beating teams by more than 10, 20 points. That’s contributed to a lot of our success so far.”
Byrne and Chilson carried a bulk of the offensive effort in the first half while Hargrove, the 6-foot-9 senior forward, sat much of the second quarter in foul trouble. Hargrove, who like Byrne also has a ton of varsity experience, came back strong in the second half with eight of his 12 points and gave the Warriors yet another facilitation option.
Chilson also didn’t slow down in the second half, scoring eight points in the third quarter that included a steal leading into a runner just before the buzzer as the Warriors inflated a 33-23 halftime lead to a 53-32 advantage. With Methacton almost not missing, it would have been tough for most teams to keep up but the Eagles didn’t give up.
“I always like playing them because they don’t play like any other team in the PAC,” Lockard said of Norristown. “It completely challenges us to get a different type of opponent and see who is going to step up. Cam did a great job of doing that today.”
It was the team’s veterans who encouraged Chilson, along with the other players the Warriors are counting on in bigger roles this year like Matt Christian or Colin Meyer, to just be himself. Once the junior stopped thinking and just played, like he did in the second half on Saturday, things started to open up for him.
“They just kept telling me to play basketball,” Chilson said. “I think the first couple games, they knew I was timid so they kept telling me to play my game. We know everyone on the court can play basketball and they told me ‘when you do that, we can be a really dangerous team.'”
As promising as the start has been, the Warriors have not been invulnerable. They trailed at halftime of Friday’s game against Boyertown before rallying back to win and prior to Saturday, hadn’t been a great foul shooting team. Winning can sometimes mask deficiencies but Methacton’s leaders in Byrne and Hargrove have been through enough to recognize this team still has work to do.
There may not be a Jeff Woodward or Erik Timko on this roster, and District 1’s 6A classification still looks up for grabs, but the Warriors’ start is at least making people notice them.
“I know the talent isn’t the same as that team so the ‘for-sure’ factor of getting there isn’t the same in my eyes but I feel like if we play together and keep doing all the little things, we can get back to where we were then,” Byrne said. “Honestly, if we get there, then we get there but if we want to do it, it starts now and we have to build on it.”
METHACTON 18 15 20 16 – 69
NORRISTOWN 14 9 9 12 – 44
M: Colin Meyer 2 2-2 6, Brett Byrne 8 2-2 19, Cole Hargrove 6 0-0 12, Cam Chilson 7 3-3 18, Matt Christian 2 0-0 6, Matt Blakemore 1 0-0 2, Jason Lagana 1 0-0 2, Dan Brandi 1 0-0 2, Preston Hull 1 0-0 2. Totals: 29 7-7 69
N: Greg Mobley 1 0-0 2, DJ Johnson 5 2-2 12, Righteous Mitchell 0 1-2 1, Myron Kilrew 4 0-0 10, John Dinolfi 2 0-0 4, Roddy Gaymon 1 0-0 2, Rayshawn Stinson 2 2-6 6, Jaden Wise 1 2-2 4, Quentin Watson 0 2-2 2. Totals: 16 9-14 44
3-pointers: M Christian 2, Byrne, Chilson; N – Kirlew 2
