Boys' Basketball: Defense Wins It For River Hill Against Reservoir

Every year – with the exception of maybe this year – the Baltimore Ravens have lived by it.

Coaches in any sport will swear by it.

It is the axiom: "Defense wins games."

It is already accepted as true in theory. On Monday it was once again shown to be true in practice, with 's defense prevailing against Reservoir's defense, giving the Hawks the 54-48 victory over the Gators. 

"Defense is our bread and butter," said Matthew Graves, River Hill's coach.

It needed to be in Monday's game. The Hawks did not shoot particularly well. They simply played solid, fundamental defense.

That's how it's been in Graves' six years heading the Hawks. His teams have played a mixed bag of defenses, with the coach preaching to each team that tough defense will "create lots of scoring opportunities."

River Hill got into the passing lanes early. They opened with a 2-3 matchup zone, a different look that allowed the Hawks to force turnovers and made it hard for Reservoir to get into any kind of offensive flow. This stingy defense helped the Hawks take a 9-1 lead to open the game.

By the end of the first quarter, the Hawks led 16-8. The highlight of the first quarter came off one such turnover, a steal that led to a transition dunk by senior Kevin McDuffie. 

Down by eight points, Reservoir looked to its bench for a much-needed lift. Cody Toler and big man Matt Christian provided the sparks. The two players combined for 19 of the 35 bench points for the Gators. 

"The bench was huge tonight," Reservoir coach Ryan Carson said afterward. "They went off and hit big shot after big shot." 

Reservoir rallied in the second quarter and made the game competitive. 

The Gators cleaned up their passes and turned up the defense for the rest of the game. With both teams playing great defense, the competition picked up.

Every time the Gators fought hard to get back into the game, the Hawks' tenacious defense would spark a run to help them improve their lead.

In the third quarter, the Gators cut the lead to 28-25. River Hill's Alex Standrowicz answered the Gators' charge with a difficult reverse layup. On the next play, he came up with an athletic steal that led to a three-point play after he was fouled on a tough layup. 

This helped the Hawks go on to an 8-0 run. The Gators would not go down easily, however.

They played a tough full-court press and switched up their half-court defense to a 3-2 zone. In the fourth quarter they would even tie the game up following a steal that led to a two-handed dunk by Matt Christian.  

Once again, the Hawks would strike back. 

This time it was Kevin McDuffie's turn to lead the charge. McDuffie answered with a four-point play after being fouled on a corner three-pointer. He scored six consecutive points at the end of the fourth quarter, putting the Hawks up 48-42. 

The Gators would not overcome this lead. 

Reservoir falls to 2-4. Carson was nevertheless pleased with his team's effort.  

"They played tough, but dumb fouls and turnovers near the end" contributed to their loss, he said.

River Hill improved to 5-1 and will play at  on Wednesday. Graves said his team will need to work on shooting and figuring out how to expose other teams' defenses. 

Defense can win games. But a well-rounded team can win more.

Reservoir Scoring:

Matt Christian 10, Eric Toler 9, Taz Larry 7

River Hill Scoring:

Kevin McDuffie 22, Jordan Knisley 15, Alex Standrowicz 14