Clark, Best and Campbell a triple threat at guard for Upper Moreland
JENKINTOWN >> Prior to December, Upper Moreland guards Jon Clark, Alex Best and Colson Campbell hadn’t spent a minute together in a varsity basketball game.
Now, almost halfway through their season, it’d be really hard to tell the trio of Golden Bears haven’t been lifelong teammates and if anything, are still figuring things out. Clark, Best and Colson share a lot of similar traits and so far this season, it’s been a pretty sure bet at least one, if not two, of the three will have working.
Upper Moreland’s triple threat was well-balanced Wednesday as the Golden Bears topped host Jenkintown 56-31 in the opening round of the Robert Hopf Memorial Basketball Tournament.
“We complement each other’s weaknesses,” Best said. “We stick to our strengths, we know our moments when it’s time to shoot or pass the ball and we know how to execute the offense well.”
Wednesday, Clark led all scorers with 11 points while Best had 10 and Colson was right behind with nine. That’s been a recurring theme in the Golden Bears’ scorebook so far this winter with all three close to double-figure scoring on a game-to-game basis but all happy to cede the stage if one of the others is really feeling it.
Campbell, a 6-foot sophomore, is technically the most experienced of the three after playing a key bench role for last year’s PIAA Class 5A playoff team. He’s had a 28-point game and a 26-point game so far this season but can pass it too, chalking up five assists on Wednesday.
“When we find the right teammate who’s hot, he’s going to get a bucket when we need him to,” Campbell said.
Clark, a 6-foot-3 senior, has a couple 20-point outings of his own this season and has thrived by attacking the rim and initiating a lot of the offense – although he opened Wednesday’s win with a 3-pointer. He put a lot of time in this offseason to prepare for an expanded role but is still looking to be even more in tune with backcourt teammates.
“Both these guys are great shooters,” Clark said of Best and Campbell. “My game is more of the drive, so I know I’ve always got them on the kick-out. I’m actually trying to do a better job of finding them because they’re both guys I can trust to kick out to off the drive.”
Bears coach Dan Heiland noted that it’s a huge advantage to have three capable guards, although he’s even been a little surprised how quickly the trio has put it all together. Best, a 5-foot-10 junior, is new to the program this year so he came in completely fresh not only to the other guards, but all his teammates.
He’s fit right in. While Best hasn’t had a 20-point night yet, he’s been in double-digits four times and even on Wednesday, had no hesitation to slide in and draw an offensive foul early in the fourth quarter with the Bears leading by a good amount.
“They’ve come a long way and the more they play together, the more they understand the game and how each other want to play,” Heiland said. “When one guy’s maybe not having his best night, the other two want to pick him up and we can rely on those three guys to step up in big moments to knock down a big shot.
“They’ve been doing a great job playing within the system and making the right plays at the right moments and that’s been one of the key factors to us getting off to this 9-1 start.”
While high school basketball teams usually go as their guards go, the Bears do have two solid big men starters in Nigel Adamson and Sean Murphy who do a lot of work to free up the guards. Wednesday, Adamson had a nice slam off a drop-pass by Campbell in the first quarter and his 6-foot-5 build is an imposing image when pressuring the ball up the court.
“The guards usually get most of the points but the bigs help execute the offense,” Campbell said. “They cause a lot of attention, they draw double-teams as big men so when they get the ball, they kick out and let us go at it.”
Jenkintown, under first-year coach Brandon McNamara, is still working things out. Junior Tommy Walsh had seven points and senior John Liu scored nine but the Drakes are overall inexperienced and need a few more scorers to emerge to help Walsh and senior Dan Ecker.
The three guards also do a nice job on the defensive end for UM, combining for six steals and a block on Wednesday. With any of the three able to turn a takeaway into a fast break, it’s just another added dimension the guard trio adds to Upper Moreland’s approach and whoever comes up with the ball will probably have one or two options from the others guards trailing the play.
“We try to pick up early, try to get deflections and just pressure the ball,” Clark said.
It’s been a good fit so far, but Clark, Best and Campbell know they can still be even better together.
“I’d say everywhere,” Best said. “We work hard every day to get better at everything. We don’t focus on just one thing, it starts on the defensive side for us, it’s where we like to get our offense and any of us, we can push the floor.”
“If one of us is hot, we’re going to get him the ball,” Campbell said. “That’s the best way for us to keep the offense flowing, we can all share it.”
UM will face Samuel Fels in Thursday’s title tilt of the Robert Hopf tournament which should present a good challenge for the Bears’ three guards against an uptempo opponent. After that, it’s right into SOL crossover play after the holiday which give UM so different challenges as they look to stay in the hunt for an SOL Freedom title.
“Having one guard that can handle, bring it up and set you up in your offense is critical and we have three guys who can do that,” Heiland said. “We try to use that to the best of our advantage, those guys continue to buy in to what we’re asking them to do. Those guys are like coaches on the floor too, which is a huge advantage for us, they drive home to everybody else what we’re trying to do.”
