McGill-Toolen’s Kaden Thrash tries for a lay-in against Wetumpka in the Class 6A South Regional semifinals Thursday night at Montgomery’s Garrett Coliseum. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
McGill-Toolen coach Phillip Murphy, right, plots strategy during the Yellow Jackets’ 49-35 win over Wetumpka Thursday night. The defense on this year’s team may help McGill-Toolen reach the state final four for the sixth time under Murphy. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
MONTGOMERY — Wetumpka spent an evening with McGill-Toolen’s defense that was about as pleasant as having one’s toenails yanked off with some rusty pliers and limped out of Garrett Coliseum with a 49-35 defeat in the Class 6A South Regional semifinals Thursday night.
Baylor Dumont was the only Yellow Jackets player in double figures with 10 points but all nine players scored — their bench outscored the Indians’ bench 20-5 — and all nine players had rebounds, although not much scoring was needed as they continued McKilling it defensively.
In four postseason games, the Jackets have allowed only 38, 46, 30 and 35 points and won by margins of 15, 20, 9 and 14. The number 14 is also how many made free throws Wetumpka had compared to field goals (10). It had no — as in zero — points in the paint. As a last resort against McGill-Toolen’s asphyxiating and well-disguised zone defenses, the Indians threw up 15 three-pointers, almost as prayers, and only one settled into the sack.
“We’ve hung our hat on defense and rebounding the entire year,” said Jackets coach Phillip Murphy, who is 392-140 in his 19 years at the school and is the architect of defenses that have taken five of his teams to the state final four and brought back a Blue Map in 2016. “We do have our moments where we have struggled scoring but when you get to this point in the playoffs, if you can defend and rebound, you give yourself a chance to advance for sure.”
That defense may make this McGill-Toolen team the unlikeliest of Murphy’s teams to reach the state tournament but first the Jackets (22-8) must defeat Park Crossing (14-15) in the regional final Wednesday at 2:15 p.m.
“I feel good about where we’re at,” Murphy said. “ … This one compares to no team I’ve had. This is a complete anomaly. This is a group of eight seniors that have been playing together forever. They’ve got really good size. We’re not the greatest offensive team but they’re a resilient group. They just find ways.”
Murphy has five front-court players who are 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, 6-5 and 6-7 who make it tough for opponents to finish at the basket and also control the boards. But at the core of their success is a wicked brew of a defense.
“We mix our defenses a lot,” Murphy said. “I mean, we can go man, we can full-court run and jump and man. We’ve got zone press. We’ve got half-court zone. We’ve got zones that convert to man. My philosophy over the last 19 years here is we try to camouflage stuff constantly and keep teams kind of guessing what’s going to happen next. And this team happens to be a little bit more heavy on the zone side.”
McGill-Toolen trailed 7-5 in the first period, then went on a 17-4 run to shove Wetumpka into a body bag. The Jackets’ defense was so effective, so rhythm killing, that no Indians player had more than one field goal in the first half.
McGill-Toolen’s offense isn’t likely to frighten many teams from here on out but it is playing its part by slowing the game down to help the defense. And it took care of the ball by committing only six turnovers on Thursday night.
“We’ve tightened it down and some of that is we’ve slowed the pace down a little bit, which is fewer possessions,” Murphy said. “But we pride ourselves on defense — we always have. And this group is kind of locked in and they know they have offensive struggles at times and that’s what they’ve got to do to get it done.”
