Boys basketball: Wasps on the attack

By ALEX CERVANTES

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 12-17-2024 5:00 PM

WINDSOR — The first 2 minutes and 47 seconds of Monday night’s game between the Woodstock and Windsor boys basketball teams belonged to Aksel Oates.

The Woodstock junior forward’s first 3-pointer, a relatively uncontested look from the wing, didn’t elicit a reaction from the Windsor bench. His second, another clean hoist from the right wing, gave the visiting Wasps a double-digit lead before Windsor had attempted a shot.

By Oates’ third three, Windsor coach Larry Dougher had seen enough. The ball had barely fallen through the nylon before Dougher was asking for a timeout, hoping the brief respite would see Woodstock’s early scoring barrage stall.

It did not. The Wasps’ lead had ballooned to 19 points by the end of the first frame. Propelled by Oates’ seven total threes, Woodstock cruised to an 84-39 victory. The win pushes the Wasps to 2-0 after routing Rivendell in the season opener.

“We have a lot of shooters, and you’ve got to pick your poison,” said Scott Brooks, now in his second season as Woodstock’s coach. “Aksel has proven that he can shoot, so it’s not surprising to me. It’s early in the season, but I’m very proud of the boys.”

Just as Windsor’s inability to string together stops defensively plagued its season-opening performance, so too did its offensive struggles against Woodstock’s 2-3 matchup zone defense, which Dougher expected to give his team trouble.

Brooks, who said he’s historically preferred a man-to-man defense, has installed a 2-3 matchup zone over the last couple of years. It’s a system predicated on pressuring the ball and limiting dribble penetration while also not attempting to gamble too much.

Play smart and let the other make the mistakes, Brooks said. That’s exactly what happened early.

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Windsor turned the ball over on its opening four possessions before generating a shot attempt. Its first bucket came with 4:27 remaining in the quarter, provided by senior Mike Lopez’s touch shot in the lane. Another nearly three-minute scoring drought precluded the Yellowjackets from mounting much of a comeback.

Out of halftime, Windsor set up in a 1-3-1 zone in an attempt to disrupt Woodstock’s offensive rhythm. It was a chance Dougher felt his team needed to take, but the shift was largely ineffective. Oates buried four threes in the first 5:26 of the second half, part of a 21-8 run for the Wasps.

“It’s just my teammates giving me the opportunity to shoot,” Oates said of his performance. “(Brooks) opens the gym in the offseason and, this year, I’ve just tried to go in every day and try to get shots up.”

Dougher said Woodstock’s start on both ends of the floor was “a punch in the mouth” that his team struggled to recover from.

“I felt like, the first quarter, (Woodstock) was playing at a completely different speed than we were on offense and on defense,” said Dougher, in his third season helming Windsor. “They were much more amped up. Our guys were a little tight, but I felt like Woodstock was playing at a much better speed. They looked like they were more in midseason form than we were.”

Brooks credits his squad’s early run of form to the continuity and chemistry the newly minted varsity players developed while on jayvee last season.

Brooks said that he could have promoted a couple to play on the varsity team last season — which posted the program’s first winning record since 2018 — but opted not to. Instead, the team’s current collection of juniors and sophomores produced a 20-0 record at jayvee last season.

Such a dominant string of success allowed the group’s confidence to burgeon, and it’s carried over into the new season.

“We’re really passionate about basketball,” said sophomore guard Elvis Lavallee, a varsity returnee, who poured in 11 points. “And it shows how much we really want to play and win and how competitive we are.”

Said Oates: “We’re all best friends; we all hang out all the time. It’s just like a family. I think that’s the difference.”

Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.