DeMatha Basketball Employs Stingy Defense to Rise Among Nation's Elite

The best coaches in nearly every team sport preach defense as the key to winning. Offense might garner highlights, but it’s the gritty work done on the defensive end that more often determines the winner.

In the case of basketball, if you make the other team labor, you can wear them out. Suddenly – or slowly – they’re not jumping as high, sprinting downcourt or getting in prime rebounding position.

And when your team is having trouble scoring, defensive effort keeps you in every contest.

DeMatha basketball coach Mike G. Jones stresses these principles to his players every day in practice, before games and often at halftime. In the Stags’ past three games – all victories – defensive intensity has been most responsible for the scoreboard favoring DeMatha (10-2).

This was best on display in the Stags’ 47-22 victory over Westtown School on Saturday Dec. 28 in the Governors Challenge at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury, Md.

DeMatha held the Moose (6-3) to two five-point quarters and a pair of six-pointers. Its suffocating defense limited Westtown to 15% shooting (6 of 40).

“We just defended at a high level,” Jones told his team in the makeshift locker room. “They had to shoot over a contested hand on every single shot. If we bring that type of energy, that type of effort … we’re going to be very, very difficult to beat.

“That was a great win against a really good team.”

Westtown, from West Chester, Pa., entered the clash averaging 70 points per game. By halftime, it was trailing 23-11.

Point guard Jacob Wallace, a first-team All-Met defensive back, hit 4 of 6 shots and finished with nine points, four rebounds, four assists and a steal. Shooting guard Ace Meeks overcame a poor shooting performance (2-for-12) to total seven points and five boards. He matched Wallace in assists and steals.

Danny Abass came off the bench to score six points on 3 of 3 shooting in just eight minutes. Here’s a look at other recent action:

DeMatha 52, Southern California Academy 42 – The Stags’ stout defense continued Sunday afternoon by holding the Bears to 28% from the field (16 of 57) and a mere seven points in the decisive fourth quarter.

SoCal’s Tyler Jackson, a major Division I prospect who is attending his third school in two years (and two this season), was shackled to a dismal 1 of 13 shot-making. He averaged nearly a shot a minutes in his 14 minutes on the floor and missed all six of his 3-pointers.

West Virginia University recruit Kelvin Odih fared much better with a game-high 16 points by hitting 6 of 15 shots (4 of 12 from treyville). The only attempts he made in the second half came on back-to-back 3s to tie the game at 33 late in the third quarter.

Meeks complemented DeMatha’s stellar scoring-denial in the final period by sinking four shots off the dribble, including a floater high off the glass and a step-back jumper from the right elbow. He closed with a team-best 13 points and five rebounds.

“We’ve been trying to get Ace to just slow down a little bit,” Jones said. “He’s a phenomenal shooter, and once he slows down I think he’s one of the best shooters in the nation. He did that, he got to his mid-range, held his follow-through, had good mechanics, footwork and everything.

“And he was able to see some shots go down, which gave him a lot of confidence.”

Clinging to a 39-37 lead with 6:21 remaining, the Stags went on an 11-3 run to go up by 10 heading into the last two minutes. Meeks nailed three of his athletic shots during the stretch, Charles Thomas had a slam dunk and Caden Walton dropped in a 3 from the right wing. Thomas and Walton’s scores came courtesy of Wallace helpers.

Jones credited – you guessed it – DeMatha’s defense for seizing control of the contest. “We decided to defend, limit them to one shot,” he said. “The effort and the energy picked up.”

The Stags also got a big lift from Christian Proctor. A 6-foot-6 sophomore, he hit two 3-pointers within a minute-and-a-half late in the third period and blocked SoCal’s first shot in the fourth.

“We kind of tweaked some things,” Jones said. “We went with a bigger lineup for about two or three minutes. Christian came in, defended well, hit some key shots and rebounded on the back side.

“That’s one of the fundamentals that we really try to work on every single day in practice – rebounding the ball at a high level.”

DeMatha 63, Mount Carmel 47 – The Stags began their winning streak Dec. 22 in Baltimore by downing a very good team from Essex, Md. Played at The Boys Latin School of Maryland, it was part of the “Clash of the Titans.”

The Cougars lived up to their 11-2 record entering the game by opening up a 19-6 lead. DeMatha drew within a deuce on the strength of an 11-0 flurry that featured seven points from Sebastian and a Meeks triple.

The Stags salted the game in the fourth quarter on a 17-2 scoring spree that turned a 44-42 lead into a 61-44 bulge. Defense once again powered the outburst.

“We just ended up getting stops; we started moving on the flight of the ball and having active hands,” Jones said. “In the first three minutes of the game, I felt like we were lethargic. We gave up a straight-line drive [on] the very first play of the game, which is uncharacteristic of our team.

“We didn’t really come ready to play, but I like how we faced a little adversity; we started to fight back and play together. And once we started building stops and became more physical, it changed the outcome of the game.”

DeMatha held Mt. Carmel to 34% shooting and won the rebounding battle, 42-23. Sebastian, Thomas and McKnight led the Stags’ board game with eight apiece.

Meeks tallied 14 points, and Sebastian led DeMatha with 15. The 6-4 senior American University signee was 5 of 9 from the field (3 0f 6 from long distance) and made both of his free throws. When he’s shooting well, the Stags are hard to beat.

“Our goal for Kade is for him to be more aggressive,” Jones said. “He has a tremendous skill set and impacts the game in so many ways. We need him to score, we need him to be aggressive, we need him to look for his shot.

“When he’s making his shots, it makes us a totally different team.”

Rankings / Next Up – DeMatha is ranked 7th by The Washington Post and 21st nationally by MaxPreps. The Stags host Washington Catholic Athletic Conference rival Good Counsel on Friday night at 7:30. Next Tuesday, DeMatha will journey to Northwest Washington to face No. 1 Gonzaga.

The Eagles, ranked No. 2 in the nation, feature a four-star backcourt of junior Nyk Lewis (Xavier) and senior Derek Dixon (North Carolina). Lewis played for nearby St. Jerome Parish under 1994 DeMatha grad Joe Sego.

Cole Bowser, a Furman University signee who missed the Governors Challenge with illness, will return Friday night. Beginning with Good Counsel, the Stags will play six straight WCAC games on the road. DeMatha enters the stretch 1-1 in league play.

Chris McManes is DeMatha Catholic High School’s communications manager.