By Michael Kinney
The Moore American
MOORE — It’s been a long time since Moore has been called mentally tough. After years of finding ways to lose games, this year’s squad is earning a reputation for being a clutch defensive squad.
Saturday, the Lions proved that again when they held Northeast Academy to six fourth quarter points on their way to a 45-38 win in the championship game of the 36th Annual John Nobles Invitational Tournament at Moore High.
“It’s been years since kids can commit to defense,” MHS coach Aaron Howell said. “And they chose to commit to it. They see their program changing and I think they’d rather play defense than offense.”
The Lions picked up the defensive pressure early in the fourth quarter. Dezmine Neal and Devante Hurst were laying out for loose balls and getting into the passing lanes. If the Vikings got past them, Dorrian Gigger swatted their shots out of bounds.
With Northeast was unable to get its offense going, Moore started to string together baskets late in the contest.
Alex Black scored four straight points to give MHS a 38-34 advantage with two minutes left. He then grabbed two big rebounds, one of which led to a Chris Hobgood layup with 1:09 left in the game.
Northeast sank two free throws to get within four points. But Maurice Davenport and Neal went 4-of-8 from the line on the team’s next four possessions to put the Vikings away.
“I think we played great,” Neal said. “Good effort hard defense. The shot was off but we worked it on the defensive side. We just make our defense talk for us. If it’s not falling on the offensive side, we let our defense do the offense for us.”
Despite scoring only three points in the title game, Neal was named the tournament’s MVP.
“Really, I wasn’t even thinking about the MVP,” Neal said. “I was just thinking about the W and to do whatever it takes to get that W.”
Hobgood led the Lions with 17 points. Gigger chipped in 14.
The Vikings’ Caleb Crayton scored 12 in the loss.
Throughout the tournament, the Vikings defense had been able to harass opposing guards into turnovers. But the Lions’ Maurice Davenport, Derek Toles and Neal were quick enough to not get trapped and had the ball handling skills to keep from throwing the ball away.
Despite that, Northeast held an 11-10 first quarter lead.
Led by Omarkio Collins and Caleb Crayton, the Vikings did a good job of forcing Moore to take difficult shots. That included Collins blocking a last second shot by Moore’s Alex Black at the end of the second half, keeping the score tied at 19-19 heading into halftime.
The Vikings were held to 19 points in the second half as Moore won its second tournament of the season.
“It’s preparation,” Howell said. “All the tournament games have been fairly tight. This one was a straight out dog fight. Northeast is probably the fastest group of guards we’ve played yet. I think we did good.”
