City of Basketball Love

By Matt Gaffney (@GaffReports)

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Dobbins Tech coach Derrick Stanton knows he has some talented basketball players on a team with plenty of potential. What he wants them to strive for is four quarters of consistent play every night. 

Saturday at the CoBL Winter Showcase at Exeter Township High School, two and half quarters of playing to the Dobbins standard was enough against Columbia. 

The Mustangs improved to 4-0 on the young season with a 73-57 win over the Crimson Tide. Stanton though is far from satisfied. 

 “With the fourth quarters, I tend to think sometimes we look at it as ‘garbage time’ where we don’t have to put forth the effort. And that team (Columbia) is good,” Stanton said. “That team was not just going to roll over and let you beat ‘em. They were going to come out and make it hard for us and they did.”

Fortunately for Stanton and his Mustangs, he had two thoroughbreds to help his team overcome any bumps in the road they encountered.

 Senior guard Saleem Hudson had a triple double with 19 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists while Zachary Campbell had a game-high 22 points while being an absolute menace on the boards. Both were spectacular all game long with Hudson exerting complete control on the floor with his playmaking ability and court vision.

“Saleem kept us going, finding a lot of open shooters, and we got a lot of easy baskets,” observed Stanton. “Whenever he plays like that, these are the results – we are going to get wins. When he has his imprint on the game, I’m not saying we’re unbeatable but we are going to be hard to beat because he knows how to find the open man. He knows how to take the open shot. He creates for himself and the team and he’s a good defender too.”

 While Hudson wasn’t surprised by his assist and rebounding numbers, he was surprised by the point total next to his name.

 “Normally, I get the assists and rebounds but I never score that much,” said the humble 6-3 senior guard. “My coach always tells me to be more aggressive and I happened to be more aggressive, and it opened things up for us and we executed more.”

Columbia played tough in the first quarter with Dobbins leading 21-19 after one. But in the second quarter, the Mustangs put a little  distance between themselves and the Tide as they scored the first 15 points of the quarter. Dobbins held Columbia to just five points as they opened up a 12-point halftime lead. 

 Haneef Davis had a strong first half as he tallied 10 points. In the second half however, the sophomore guard ceded the spotlight to his senior teammates. 

 The halftime break gave Stanton an opportunity to light a little fire under Campbell. Whatever he said worked. 

Campbell and Hudson dominated the third quarter as Campbell went off for 14 points on a combination of putbacks and transition buckets on feeds from Hudson.

 “I was telling him to be himself,” said Stanton of Campbell. “Sometimes he doesn’t realize how big and strong and fast and talented he is. And I just had to tell him, you have to be that person out here because you’re the best player on the court right now and you can exert yourself and show them. It’s going to be productive for us and help us win games.”

 Campbell, a 6-4 senior, took the words to heart as he was a force at both ends of the floor. When he wasn’t getting rebounds or creating scoring opportunities on his own, he was filling the lanes in transition knowing the slick-passing Hudson would find him. 

“Zach’s the biggest one on the court and he was acting like it today,” Hudson said. 

Campbell attributed his big third quarter to not only Hudson, but to Stanton for motivating him.

 “When I go against smaller players, it takes me a while to get used to it,” Campbell said. “My coach just aired me out at halftime and after that I just exploded.”

 Dobbins turned up the defensive pressure in the middle quarters and forced Columbia to turn the ball over, allowing their transition game to thrive.

“Outside of the fourth quarter, I thought we played well,” said Stanton. “Sometimes it takes a little time for our press to really sink in and start having its effect and I think we did in the second and third quarters we were able to open up the lead by either having them turn it over or we would get steals off their passes and convert in transition.”

 The Mustangs wore down the Crimson Tide with their pressure and were relentless in all facets as they pushed their lead to 26 at the end of the third as Tech led 62-36.

 Stanton gave Hudson and Campbell a much-needed break and the bench players an opportunity in the final frame. Columbia refused to concede though and stayed in attack mode behind Jordan Poole, who led the Crimson Tide with 18 points. The Tide whittled the 26-point lead down to 16 when Stanton had seen enough. 

 He signaled for Campbell and Hudson to check back in and the senior leaders settled things down and the Mustangs to close out the win. 

Stanton is focused on getting his team playing consistently for four quarters. He knows any dip in their level of play in the Philly Public League will not suffice.

“Our clean up (goal) needs to be finishing games. This isn’t the first time we’ve gotten a large lead and a team pressures us, we seem to want to hold the ball and not execute. We have to always keep tempo and take opportunities when they present themselves.”

By Quarter

Scoring:
Dobbins Tech: Campbell 22, Hudson 17, Davis 12, Akridge 11, Little 9, Richardson 2.

Columbia: Poole 18, B. Miller 11, Simms 10, Poindexter 7, L. Miller 5, Hershey 4, Moreta 2