Behind an effective press on the defensive end in the second half and a strong first half performance from Richard Adu, REDA Black was able to hand PHASE 1 Prep a 52-39 defeat at Cawthra Park.

By applying a press in the third quarter REDA was able to disrupt PHASE 1’s attempts to get the ball over midcourt and the turnovers began piling on. Though the half court sets seemed ineffective at times  for REDA, the defence kept its opponents at bay and for the second time in the game REDA was able to hold PHASE 1 to just four points in a quarter.

“We just got to vary it when we want to press and when we don’t want to press. If you press all game then we get lackadaisical, in our press we want to bring’ some fire, bring some speed, create some turnovers off it and that’s exactly what we did,” said Jesse Tipping head coach of REDA Black.

Though a fourth quarter comeback was mounted by PHASE 1 there was not enough time to overcome the deficit.

In its first game of the New Year there seemed to be a number of new faces on the floor for PHASE 1 with four additions to the roster. In the early going it was evident there was a lack of familiarity as offensive sets were stagnant and points hard to come by.

The disarray allowed REDA to build a sizable advantage on  the scoreboard, getting out in transition off of turnovers and with Adu single handily outscoring PHASE 1 pouring in nine first quarter points to give REDA Black a 15-4 lead.

It didn’t take long for PHASE 1 to regroup.

Starting the second quarter on a 6-0 run PHASE 1 was able to pull within single-digits and for the remainder of the half would start to show signs of what they were capable of. Where the lack of ball movement defined the first eight minutes, the second quarter saw teammates finding the open man for midrange jumpers and quick outlet passes leading to easy layups.

Relying too much on fast break baskets seemed to be the cause for the poor production from REDA in the second frame, as half court execution was far from crisp. Despite a 16-point first half from Adu, REDA only led by three at halftime, 26-23.

“Our guys just weren’t running their plays strong enough in order to get open off them and we missed basically all our [jump] shots a, if it wasn’t for layups it would’ve been a different game. We need to work on our shooting a little more, start knocking down three’s, start knocking down mid-range, just take advantage of the little buckets that we missed,” said Tipping.  

All the momentum gained at the end of the first half seemed to vanish at the beginning of the third.

Leading all scorers was Adu who finished with a game-high 20 points, while Tyler Ackerman scored a team-high 12 points for PHASE 1.