MIDLOTHIAN | Being patient enough to wait for the right shot doesn't always work in high school basketball. Often, the ball ends up squirting out of bounds, or directly into the hands of the other team.
T.F. North turned the ball over 11 times on Friday night, but that was acceptable in the grand scheme of things. The Meteors connected on 21 of their 30 shots and held Bremen to six rebounds in a 49-29 rout in the Braves' gym.
"We still had too many turnovers, but at least we're making a conscience effort to use our big men down low," Meteors coach Tim Bankston said. "That's something I've been stressing the last four or five games. I see us getting better."
The ringleader was junior Marquis Todd. He had three big dunks among his team-leading 17 points. All three came in the second half, when the Meteors expanded upon a 28-17 halftime lead.
But Todd was by no means alone. Ashanti Randolph was the go-to man in the early going, scoring eight of his 10 points in the first quarter. And Nick Wood added nine points.
What neither the Meteors nor Braves did was run the ball. This was a game of ball control, as evidenced by T.F. North's 41 possessions.
"Our patience was one of the things we've been talking about," Bankston said. "Not playing so fast and out of control. Sometimes young teams forget to run and execute. We've had a lot of games slip away, but today we played with poise, and I was happy to see that."
Bremen, led by senior Cedrick Clemons' 21 points, was slightly more sloppy, with 14 turnovers. North's pesky 3-2 zone had much to do with that.
T.F. North, while still in the bottom third of the South Suburban Blue, improved to 10-15 overall, while Bremen dropped to 5-18, and has one conference game left. That game is Friday at T.F. South.
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