Norristown finds success with aggressive, high-pressure defense
WEST NORRITON >> Norristown had just taken its largest lead of the game.
Senior guard Xavier Edwards drove to the basket, scored through contact and sank the free throw to give the No. 5 seeded Eagles a 20-point lead over Central Bucks West with 3:09 left in the third quarter of their District 1 Class-6A quarterfinal Tuesday night at Norristown Area High School.
After the free throw, all five Norristown defenders stayed in the front court. They almost earned a five-second call, but instead forced a turnover on the inbound pass.
On the ensuing possession, senior guard Tyler Lyons scored at the rim for what easily could have been another and-one to grow the lead to 22 points.
That’s the type of intensity these Eagles play with.
They don’t care that it’s a 20-point game with 11 minutes remaining.
It’s something that their head coach, second-year man Dana “Binky” Johnson, has been drilling into them.
“(Getting everyone to buy in) was tough last year,” Johnson, who averaged three steals per game as an aggressive point guard during his junior year at Canisius, said. “Last year it was tough, but this year, no. As far as some of our program philosophies, it’s instilled in them that offense wins games, defense wins championships. That’s one of our mantras that we always preach. One of the things that I pound into their head every day and always say ‘players memorize what you emphasize’ and I always say ‘defense travels.’ There are going to be nights you can’t make a shot, can’t make a layup, but defense does travel. It can travel on the road, through the district when you play neutral sites and travel when you’re away.”
Norristown is a senior heavy team, with upperclassmen Edwards, Lyons, Mickeel Allen and Marcus Sanford starting their first playoff matchup alongside sophomore Nizer Kinney. The 12th-graders have bought in to the full-court philosophy and that’s led to the entire program getting on board.
“Right now we are re-establishing the Norristown basketball culture,” Johnson, who won a District 1 title with the Eagles in 1990, said. “It’s a community-based-first program. Once you have the community support, then you have the school kids interested. The elementary school — we go down to visit those schools to actually remember you’re setting an example. Our seniors are doing a great job of it off-and-on the court. They’re helping re-establish the culture. I’ve only been with these seniors for two years and, man, I’m going to miss them.”
“Once (the team) sees the captains doing what we have to do, they just follow,” Lyons added. “The captains are always doing what we have to do.”
The Eagles held the No. 21 seeded Bucks to just three points in the first quarter of Tuesday’s 59-35 win and 10 points in the first half.
“I think it was more us getting in our own way,” CB West coach Adam Sherman said of his team’s offensive struggles, which the Eagles full-court pressure certainly influenced. “I thought we were playing too fast. I thought our decision-making wasn’t great, but we should have played better. I’m disappointed that we didn’t play our best basketball when we should have.”
Norristown credits its conditioning for what it’s able to do defensively. With senior Vernon Tubbs and sophomore Aaron Reddish out against West, the Eagles played their high-intensity defense with only a seven-man rotation before mixing in more guys with less than six minutes left in the fourth quarter and the outcome long-decided.
“We condition every day,” Lyons said. “We’re never tired.”
“We are a well-conditioned team,” Johnson added. “That’s another one of our staples — in order to play defense 94 feet you better be conditioned. We take pride in conditioning as well.”
Norristown, which clinched a state playoff berth for the second straight season, will continue its district run in the quarterfinals Friday night at Pennridge at 7 p.m. Unsure if Tubbs or Reddish will be available to play, the Eagles defense will need to be at its best to stop Sean Yoder, Jonathan Post and the No. 4 Rams and punch their ticket to the semifinals at Temple University.
