By Michael Wojtychiw

Payton’s boys basketball team isn’t really known for its pressure defense. 

In fact, senior Brennan Moore wasn’t sure if they had used it previously all season. 

But one watching the fourth quarter of the Grizlies’ game against Marshall, however, would think that coach Ross Burt’s squad primary defense would be to pressure all game long. The Commandos couldn’t quite solve that pressure in the battle for what would give either team the leg up in the White-West Conference championship race, as the Grizzlies battled back from a 16-point deficit in the third quarter to pull out a thrilling 43-42 win Friday night.

“Our coach preaches playing as a team and that’s what we’ve been doing all year,” Moore said. “We trust guys to make shots so when it comes down to the wire, there’s always someone there to step up and it worked out.

“It seemed like they wanted to hold onto the ball alot in the fourth and our coach really got into us about stepping up on defense. That flustered them. It was pressure we haven’t really done at all this season, so when we did that, it turned the tide.”

“We’ve got a heavy senior group that has really bought into what this group is about,” Burt said. “They play good team basketball, and when you have teams like that…we don’t play much pressure defense but they come out of their shlls a little bit and turn the pressure up. That changed the narrative.

“Being able to turn the switch on like that defensively is a 100 percent trust thing. Teammates trusting each other, putting themselves out there if they get tired and I feel like they did a really good job just busting it.” 

Down 38-24 going into the fourth and final quarter, the Grizzlies’ defense put on a clinic with deflections, steals, tipped passes and causing the Commandos to get flustered when ever bringing up the ball.

Payton would finish with four steaks in the quarter, two of which would lead directly to points, helping the hosts mount the comeback.

“The kids mentally just got tired,” Marshall coach Henry Cotton said. “The last two minutes of the games are often the most important and in the last minute-and-a-half, we lost our discipline.

“I’m proud of the guys the way they played, they did their assignments in the first three quarters.”

Another thing that helped Payton in the comeback was the play of Moore.

The 6-foor-3 Moore scored 11 points in the game’s final eight minutes, including a stretch in the fourth quarter that saw him score 11 of the Grizzlies’ first 13 points of the fourth quarter, many of dribble drives to the basket.

“We have a lot of guys who can shoot threes, so my job is really to get downhill and kick to them, but today I saw the basket, so I was able to put them in,” Moore said. “It was really just about getting downhill.”

Payton took the lead on a 3-pointer by Kai Fogelson with 1 minute, 21 seconds remaining, forcing Marshall into two more turnovers via steals and a missed shot to end the game.

The Commandos were able to do much of what they wanted in the first half, especially inside, seemingly using its size to push around the Grizzlies. Joel Brown would finish with 12 points for Marshall, 10 of which came in the first three period when he was able to use his large 6-foot-8-inch frame down in the paint.

“They (post players) were more working for the ball,” Cotton said. “And when you’ve got kids working for the ball, it’s easy to deliver.”

The win was big for Payton, as it gives the Grizzlies a perfect 7-0 conference record going into their last two White-West games against Crane and Wells, respectively. If the team wins at least one of those, they’re guaranteed the conference crown. 

For a team that has finished fifth and third in the White Division, after dropping down two years ago, respectively, to be at this point at this time is big for the Grizzlies and their upperclassman-laden squad. Twelve of the 13 players on the team are juniors or seniors, seven of whom are in their final year in the program.

“We’ve got another game, but our goal is to be the best team we can be into February,” Burt said. “That’s been the goal for at least the last year-and-a-half, something we preach is ‘Let’s get a little bit better each week.’ And I thought they really showed they’re getting better as the season goes along.

“This means a lot to us,” Moore said. “It’s been our goal since the beginning of the season, everything we’ve worked for. To be 7-0 feels really good but we know we have to work hard when we get to practice and hopefully win a conference championship next week.”

Marshall, on the other hand, is a squad that carries mostly juniors, many of whom are in their first or second year on the varsity squad as last year’s team had eight sophomores on it. After playing at the DeKalb Tournament, hosting a MLK Shootout and playing in a game like this all in about two weeks time, Cotton feels as if his squad is really progressing, regardless of what the results might show.

“I went in there and told them that I was proud of them and to keep their heads up,” the Marshall coach said. “We learned that we have to stay together, control what we can control, understand that teams make runs and when you’re down, to make plays.”

Moore would finish with 18 points on the night, while Nate Raub added 10 for Payton.