- April 26, 2024
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The Seabreeze girls basketball team is built around its pressure defense and transition points.
BY MATT MENCARINI | STAFF WRITER
Possession after possession, the Matanzas High School girls basketball team tried getting the ball across halfcourt Monday night. And they may have been successful on more possessions, too, if they weren’t playing Seabreeze.
From just a few minutes into the game, up until about five minutes left in a 58-15 rout of the visiting Pirates, head coach James Johnson had his Sandcrabs pressuring the ball.
“Our defense is our offense,” Johnson said. “We’re just going to get up, we’re going to pressure the ball in transition and try to get easy baskets.”
The Sandcrabs intercepted passes, stole the ball and trapped Matanzas into a nightmare scenario leading to more transition points for Seabreeze than total points for Matanzas.
Tatiann McCoy, often playing the point on the full-court press, led all scorers with 16 points, more than Matanzas’ entire team. Shakira Scantling scored 13 points and Zhamaria Bell added six, but was a dominant force when the Sandcrabs played a halfcourt offense.
“We’re pretty balanced,” Johnson said. “The first game we played over at University (High School), she had 22 points and 17 rebounds. She’s very dominating.”
Despite a good low-post player, the Sandcrabs are still a team built to run the floor, pressure the ball and create turnovers in the open court.
“We want to make teams get out of their comfort zone and rush (themselves),” Johnson said. “(We) try to get easy baskets. I know once the shot goes up, we’re off and running. We’re going to rebound and clear (the ball).”
Johnson said his practices maintain a similar game-time tempo. His players compete and practice hard, working on ball handling, defense and press to make sure they control the game’s speed.
With its runaway win Monday night, Seabreeze moves to 2-0 on the season and plays Atlantic High School 7 p.m. Nov. 27 at home.
