Holiday Tournament Roundup: Indians clamp down defensively to secure championship

GREENVIEW, Ill. —Tyler Duschinsky received some validation Thursday that the Payson Seymour boys basketball players are adapting well to the first-year coach’s style.

The trophy the Indians won was nice, but the manner in which they won it was more impressive.

Payson locked down defensively, limiting North Fulton to nine points in the second half of a 61-25 victory in the championship game of the Greenview Holiday Tournament. The Indians won all three games this week and are riding a six-game winning streak.

“Today kind of solidified that we’re moving in the right direction,” Duschinsky said. “They play hard for me.”

Confidently, too.

“Defensively, we locked on,” Duschinsky said. “We caused chaos for every team.”

It leads to success offensively.

“As long as you lock in and buy in defensively, they have a lot of freedom offensively,” Duschinsky said. “That entices them to really get after people, get good traps, jump passing lanes and rebound.”

The Indians (10-3) needed that early, pulling away over the final four minutes of the first quarter to take a 12-point lead.

“(North Fulton) came out and matched our intensity,” Duschinsky said. “Once we started to pull away, that changed.”

Senior guard Aidan Perry and senior forward Riker Triplett was named to the all-tournament team.

“Anytime you can walk away with a trophy it’s always a positive,” Duschinsky said.