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C1D2 BKB: Balanced Risco to give Leopold all it wants at both ends
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Risco High School defender CJ Blankenship (black) defends against Neelyville High School junior Casen Stephens recently at Neelyville High School.
Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com
Leopold High School varsity boy’s basketball coach Gary Poyner has been around long enough to know how to scout an upcoming opponent. In assessing his next foe, Risco, the debate is whether the Tigers are more problematic offensively or defensively.
The answer is “Yes.”
Unfortunately, for the Wildcats, Risco is better at both ends of the floor than they have been in several seasons, and that is why the Tigers (22-4) have their most wins since 2019.
“We said at the beginning of the year,” veteran Tiger coach Brandon Blankenship said recently, “that we have to let defense and rebounding define us.”
Top-seed Risco will face No. 4 seed Leopold (14-12) in the semifinal of the MSHSAA Class 1 District 2 Tournament at Richland (Essex) High School tonight at 6 p.m.
The Tigers haven’t won a District title since 2019, but they are poised to do so because of the strides that they have made at both ends of the court over the past two seasons.
Three seasons ago, Risco allowed nearly 66 points per game by its opponents but has lowered that to under 49 points per game this season.
“We have made a couple of adjustments to our man-to-man defense,” Blankenship said. “We’ve got a couple of little different schemes that we are trying, and the guys have really just bought into the mindset.”
The Tigers have four defeats, but three of those are by four points or less. In Risco’s past 13 games, it has limited teams to 50 points or fewer in 11 of those.
In its regular-season finale, a 51-48 overtime win at Neelyville, the Tigers were tenacious on the glass, but most notably late, it was the offensive glass.
“We’ve paid attention and put in time on that,” Blankenship said of his team’s effort on the offensive glass. “You always talk about it, but sometimes, it is what you prioritize.
“The guys know that they need to do that.”
Risco has seven upperclassmen on its roster, and that group has made significant strides offensively, as well.
The Tigers are scoring nearly 10 points per game better than they did two seasons ago.
“I would prefer to get up and down and push and try to run,” Blankenship said. “But, sometimes at a small school, you just have to go with your personnel. There have been years where we ran more (offensive) sets and kind of slowed things down because we didn’t have as many scorers.”
That isn’t as much of an issue this year.
“We’ve got multiple guys who can score,” Blankenship said. “(Junior) Sammy Smith is a huge scorer for us and we’ve got shooters who can spot up.
“We’ve got two inside guys (also), so we have a little bit of everything.”
Defending District champion and host, Richland (Essex) (20-7) will take on Scott County Central (13-14) in the other semifinal at 7:15 p.m.