TAYLOR – Tuesday marked the first day of the second half for the Downriver League boys basketball regular season schedule. One matchup on the docket saw Brownstown Woodhaven traveling to Taylor, a sequel of what was the season opener for both teams back on Dec 2.
Woodhaven was looking to make it a season-best three straight wins overall, while Taylor was looking to snap a four-game slide.So far, so good for the squad from Woodhaven, who continued to handle their business in conference play.
After a slow start, the Warriors were able to get into a groove and, on a freezing night, get hot when it counted to down the host Griffins by a final score 48-36.
On a night where his team just wasn’t clicking offensively – after putting up north of 60 points in their two games prior – Woodhaven head coach Greg Scheffler turned to his defense to spark their win on Tuesday.
“We just kept on trying to play defense and getting stops,” Scheffler said after the win. “We held them to under 40, which defensively, I was okay with, (but) offensively we weren’t flowing.”
After trailing by a basket to end the first quarter, Woodhaven got to work on defense and held Taylor to just two points in the second. That allowed them to build up a 21-16 halftime lead.
The Griffins briefly extended their early lead in the second, but Woodhaven’s Myles Jordan grabbed a steal and his basket with 3:44 to go gave the Warriors a 17-16 advantage, a lead they never let up.
At the halftime break, the chat was all about eliminating Taylor’s transitions and scrappy play.
“They’re good in transitions and Taylor’s always been scrappy,” Scheffler said. “We knew that they could rebound well and transition. That’s the two things they did well in the first half. We tried eliminating that in the second half and I think we did a better job.”
Woodhaven went on a 6-0 run just two and a half minutes into the third, which helped inflate their lead to as many as 10. The teams went point-for-point in the fourth quarter, but the visitors’ fight in the middle quarters fueled the win, their seventh straight vs league opponents.
Senior Bradyn Harrington led all scorers on the night with 21 points for the Warriors, including an 11-point third quarter. The junior Jordan chipped in with 11 points of his own.
Taylor was led by Ahmad Hill with 16 points, almost half of which came in the fourth quarter.
“It was a rough game,” Taylor head coach Tim Allen said. “Greg does a great job over there with pressing us and we work on it all the time, but they just do a really good job.”
Despite the loss, Allen was pleased with the efforts from both the senior Hill and as well as junior Jailen Scott.
“Jailen has been working his butt off,” Allen said. “He started the season probably as the 10th or 11th man and now he’s a starter.
“Obviously Ahmad has been great for us for two years now,” Allen continued. “He had a little rough night tonight shooting but you can’t blame him. He plays every minute of every game and never complains.”
Despite their recent struggles, Allen is optimistic about the Griffins program moving forward, specifically with the coaching staff he now has in place.
“I’m really excited about the new coaches that we brought in,” he said. “We have Shawn Stewart and Devan Stewart coaching JV, Doug Young coaching freshmen, and Isiah Beauchamp and Chris Imperati on varsity, so we’ve got many varsity-experienced coaches on staff and it’s starting to show.
“We put a whole new system in offensively and defensively,” Allen added. “The first round through, we kind of got some feelers and I expect the second round to be a lot better, much like we saw tonight.”
UP NEXT
Both teams now turn to the rest of the second go-around in the ‘anyone-can-win-on-any-night’ Downriver League.
For Woodhaven (8-5, 8-1 DRL), they turn to a big showdown at home against reigning league champion Lincoln Park on Friday, Jan 23. The Warriors were handed a hard 57-35 loss by the Railsplitters back on Dec 5.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Lincoln Park suffered their first league loss of the season at the hands of Gibraltar Carlson. That means the winner of Friday’s tilt will take sole possession of first place in the DRL.
“We’re ready for Friday,” Scheffler said. “The boys are ready. It’s been marked on our calendar since we lost to them the first time so it should be a good game.
“The past several years, (Lincoln Park head coach) Brian Starll gets those guys ready to play hard,” Scheffler added. “We try to do the same thing at Woodhaven.”
For Taylor (3-10, 2-6 DRL), they will travel to Allen Park on Jan 23. The Griffins used a fourth-quarter rally to stun the Jaguars in their first meeting back in early December.
Photo gallery of Brownstown Woodhaven vs Taylor in DRL boys basketball action
