MRH's Frazier Delivers Tough Lesson to Blue Devils

Lessons can be learned in a variety of different ways.

Unfortunately, members of the Maplewood Richmond Heights boys’ basketball team found out the hard way why discipline is vital to success.

Head coach Corey Frazier benched his usual starters full of upperclassmen and started five underclassmen in the Blue Devils’ nonconference battle against Soldan on Monday night.

After playing to a 13-all deadlock through one quarter, Soldan outscored MRH (6-8) by 15 points in the second quarter and rolled to a convincing 70-53 victory on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“Our juniors and seniors have to learn a valuable lesson, and that’s to be on time,” Frazier lamented. “I don’t tolerate it. That’s the way I’ve always been. But our sophomores have always done what we’ve asked them to do. So they’re going to be rewarded. That’s the bottom line. I’m not going to tolerate undisciplined players.”

Despite starting freshman Anthony Lee along with sophomores Wes Williams, Khalid Hagens, Corey Frazier Jr. and Marcus Taylor, that lineup gave the Blue Devils a quick 6-1 lead highlighted by Lee’s 3-pointer.

Midway through the opening period, usual starters Tony King, Jake Hensel, Eric Liksa, Aaron Spudich and Aaron Collins slowly, but surely, entered the game, which was filled with turnovers in the first half and fouls after halftime.

King drained his first shot attempt from beyond the arc for a 9-5 advantage, but Soldan closed the first quarter on an 8-4 spurt that left things knotted up at 13.

Spudich used a strong post move to sink the first basket of the second quarter that put MRH on top, 15-13. However, the Blue Devils missed their final 11 field goals attempts in the half and mustered only three free throws in that span to go along with 16 first-half turnovers.

“We played at their pace all game long,” said Hagens, who played in his third game this season after suffering an emergency appendectomy back in November. “We didn’t play at our pace. They just took the game over in the second quarter.”

Soldan responded with 10 unanswered second-quarter points highlighted by Paul McRoberts’ one-handed slam dunk as the Tigers held a 23-15 advantage.

Following an MRH timeout, Jake Hensel got to the foul line and hit two free throws to get within six, but that’s as close as it would be the remainder of the game.

Soldan continued its second-quarter onslaught when Devin Booker drilled a 3-pointer to start a 10-1 run capped by another trifecta from Pete Sanders, giving the Tigers a comfortable 33-18 cushion.

“Since our juniors and seniors started the game on the bench, when I finally put them in the game they wanted to run right into things,” Frazier said. “They were thinking they had to hurry things up. So that actually hurt us more than it helped us.”

While the Blue Devils battled until the final buzzer sounded, a comeback just wasn’t meant to be.

The Tigers built a 22-point lead when Randi Holmes tipped in a shot for a 53-31 edge after three quarters.

MRH was effective in the fourth quarter, in large part because it only turned the ball over three times compared to 22 during the first three quarters against Soldan’s full-court pressure.

Lee scored eight of his 11 points in the final frame, including a perfect 6-for-6 at the charity stripe while Hagens was the only other Blue Devil to reach double figures with 10 points. Collins added nine points and six rebounds, King chipped in seven points before fouling out and Spudich had six points and six boards.

“Anthony is only going to get better,” Frazier said. “This was a perfect situation for him. He is at home. He’s relaxed. He’s going to shoot the ball well. He plays hard. And I’m going to reward kids that play hard.”

MRH shot just 27 percent from the floor (15-for-56) compared to Soldan converting 48 percent of its shots (26-of-54).

The Tigers were paced by a balanced scoring attack that saw four players reach double digits led by Sanders registering 16 points. Booker, Randi Holmes and Rashad Simmons each contributed 10 points, while McRoberts and Kawan Griffin had eight points apiece.

After playing just its second home game of the season, MRH hits the road again when it travels to play Cape Central at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 21. The Blue Devils are 6-8, but have played a very tough schedule.

“We haven’t ever been known for quitting, and we aren’t going to start it now,” Frazier said. “Our players know that no matter, we’re going to coach the game until the end. So they know to play hard until the end.

“We’ll bounce back. I’m not worried about it. We lost to a good team. That’s why we have the schedule the way it is.”

BOX SCORE

SOLDAN (70) – Sanders 5 4-4 16, McRoberts 3 2-4 8, Holmes 4 1-4 10, Muhammed 1 0-0 2, Griffin 3 2-4 8, Booker 4 0-0 10, Simmons 4 2-3 10, Dalamini 2 0-1 5, Shelton 0 1-2 1. Totals 26 12-22 70.

MRH (53) – Frazier 0 0-0 0, Williams 0 0-1 0, Lee 2 6-6 11, Hagens 3 3-4 10, Taylor 0 1-2 1, King 2 2-2 7, Hensel 1 2-2 4, Liksa 1 0-0 2, Spudich 3 0-2 6, Collins 3 3-3 9, Debose 0 3-4 3, Jarrett 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 20-26 53.

SOL    13        20        20        17 – 70

MRH   13        5          13        22 – 53

3-Pointers – Soldan 6 (Sanders 2, Booker 2, Holmes, Dalamini), MRH 3 (Lee, Hagens, King). Rebounds – Soldan 34 (Holmes 7, Simmons 7), MRH 33 (Spudich 6, Collins 6). Turnovers – Soldan 23, MRH 25. Fouls – Soldan 25, MRH 22. Fouled Out – King. Records – Soldan is 10-6 and MRH is 6-8.