On Friday night, the Woodruff Wolverines move back to .500 on the season with a 63-50 win over Southside Christian. This was the third win of the year for the Wolverines and the second against Southside Christian. Let’s dive into my four points from Woodruff’s victory on Friday night.
- TJ Morris: The senior point guard was brilliant all night long. There is always the old adage about how quarterbacks and point guards are wired the same way. Well, the Woodruff quarterback proved this to be true. In my opinion, he was the best player on the floor in this game. He was the only Wolverine in the double figures with 19 points and got to this number very unselfishly. He was always looking to find his teammates and distribute first, score second. He scored the majority of his 19 points from the outside, as Morris can really shoot three ball.
- Controlling the Game: Woodruff won by 13, and this reflects how well they controlled this game from the opening tip. I enjoyed watching a team playing with such confidence and “game control.” In this new age of analytics, game control is something that a lot of teams measure. Well, the Wolverines were able to do a great job of this. It started with limiting Southside Christian runs. The different looks defensively from Woodruff made it very difficult for Southside Christian to find open looks, especially inside of the arc. Senior Hunter West and junior Grayson Patterson protected the paint for the Wolverines all night. They did a great job on offense of getting paint touches and had a couple of monster blocks each on the defensive end.
- Crashing the Glass: Continuing to talk about the great play of West and Patterson, the Wolverines did a great job on both ends of out-rebounding Southside Christian. Towards the end of the first half, Southside Christian started to haul in a lot of offensive rebounds. However, Woodruff Head Coach Bryan McConnell must have made some adjustments at the break. Everyone got involved on the boards in the second half, including a couple of offensive rebounds and second chance points from TJ Morris. Sophomore Aiden Gibson did a great job of crashing the glass on both end, as well as senior Connor Hitchcock. It was a team effort that was focused in on grabbing every miss.
- Ball Movement: Just as points two and three go together, this point starts with TJ Morris. He did a great job of starting the offense everything down the floor. Southside Christian played a 2-3 zone defense all night, so Woodruff’s ball movement was able to generate open looks. Morris dished out a lot of dimes but also was able to find the pass to the assist many times as well. Guards Tre Rodgers and Dre Jenkins did a phenomenal job finding their big men and pushing the tempo. Rodgers and Jenkins got out on the break all night. These three guards were masterful at finding their open teammates and making good passes early in the shot clock to set up the offense for success.
