Tale of two halves defensively ends with Palmyra suffocating Unity over final 16 minutes

PALMYRA, Mo. — Hudson Bock could not have imagined two more polar opposite defensive performances from the Palmyra boys basketball team against Mendon Unity on Friday.

“Our defense was really good in the second half, but it was absolutely awful in the first half,” Bock said.

After taking a 39-35 lead into halftime, the Panthers looked more like boa constrictors in the second half, holding the Mustangs to 10 points and two made field goals and pulling away to a 64-45 victory.

“That’s a good way to describe it,” Unity coach Keith Carothers said.

Panthers coach Brian Rea, displeased with his team’s defensive effort in the first half, asked his team in the halftime locker room if they needed a stern talking-to.

“They said, ‘No,’” Rea said. “I said, ‘OK, then do what I ask you to do and pick it up defensively.’”

That is exactly what the Panthers did.

“We came out after halftime, executed what (Rea) wanted us to, and we got the ‘W,’” Bock said.

That included staying in front of players on drives to the basket, which Panthers senior guard Mason Smith said the Panthers did a poor job of in the first half.

“We were not getting in front of people,” Smith said. “We were not being physical.”

The Panthers ticked up the physicality and their voices several notches and provided a stiffer challenge to Unity’s screens.

“We did a good job of communicating our switches and switching every screen,” Smith said. “I think that’s what helped us the most.”

Smith’s third 3-pointer of the game gave the Panthers a 45-35 lead with 5:02 left in the third quarter, and the Mustangs never got any closer than that over the final 13 minutes.

“We wore them down a little bit,” Rea said. “It just comes down to our attitude, our effort and if we play defense. We did that in the second half, but we need to be able to do that for four quarters.”

The Panthers’ increased tenacity and aggressiveness on defense allowed them to stretch their lead, but their patient and deliberate offense helped them ice the game. Leading by 13 with six minutes left, the Panthers used 50 seconds of clock on one possession before Brayden Smith knocked down a 3-pointer.

After a defensive stop, the Panthers took 40 seconds off the timer before Hudson Bock’s putback layup stretched the lead to 60-42. The next time down the floor, Palmyra again took 40 seconds to take a shot. Bryant Hortsmeier hit Pierce White with a backdoor pass that White paid off with a layup to give the Panthers their first 20-point lead of the game.

“Until they have a shot clock, we’re not going to stall, but we’re going to utilize moving the ball, moving bodies, and trying to keep that lead and add to it,” Rea said. “If we can add to it a couple points at a time and take off time, there’s no way a team can come back on us.

“It shows we’re maturing. I think we need to do it more often, but we are maturing, so that’s a good thing to see.”

Smith and Bock paced the Panthers with 17 and 16 points, respectively.

“Coach has been drawing up plays for me, giving me good looks, giving me opportunities to use what I can do well,” Bock said. “My teammates have been getting me the ball in good positions.”

Unity led 17-14 after the first quarter and regained the lead three times in a 40-second span late in the second quarter, but Palmyra scored five straight points in the final 1:07 of the first half to take a four-point advantage into halftime.

“We had opportunities to go into halftime up, but at the same time, we weren’t down much and we felt like we were right there,” Carothers said. “We just couldn’t finish.”

Carothers said that inability to finish stemmed from the Panthers draining the Mustangs’ energy.

“They took us out of what we were trying to do as far as being aggressive,” Carothers said. “We weren’t very aggressive in the second half. I think part of that is they move so well and so much on the offensive end, you get a little worn out.

“We played with a ton of energy in the first half. We got after it. That led to a lot of run outs and we got some fast break points. I felt like in the second half, we didn’t have as much energy, whereas they’re pretty deep. They keep running guys through, and they don’t seem to get tired.”

Ryan McKinney was the Panthers’ other double digit scorer with 10 points. Sawyer Allen (14 points), Blake Arnsman (11) and Adler Gray (10) reached double figures for Unity.

The Panthers (7-1) will clash with Griggsville-Perry in the Rumble on the River at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at John Wood Community College. Unity (5-4) will face Western at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 26 in the MVIT in Mendon, Ill.