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With his imaginary bow in his left hand, Avion Robinson cocked his right arm back and released a make-believe arrow to the sky. Not even six minutes into Old Mill’s pit with defending 4A East champ Meade, the 5-foot-10 sophomore guard wanted to make it known what kind of night it would be, unleashing his inner Peter Pan after a galvanizing 3-pointer to give the Patriots a 6-4 lead.
From that point on, Robinson (21 points) tormented Meade with energizing buckets from all over the floor as well as playing his part in Coach Mike Francis’ “puzzle” in a Syracuse-inspired 2-3 zone. Led by Robinson’s scoring, No. 24 Old Mill suffocated Meade into a bevy of missed shots around the rim to stay undefeated in the 56-48 win on Tuesday night.
“I just love those type of games,” Robinson said. “It brings the monster out of me. That’s what I live for.”
All night long, it seemed like Meade couldn’t buy a basket, even if they begged. After the first quarter, the Patriots held the Mustangs to a pitiful 18.6 percent from the floor (8 of 43), including 16.7 percent from deep (3 of 18). Francis said there was nothing special about his 2-3 zone, other than it’s sprinkled tactics and pointers from Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, widely regarded as the mastermind of the defense.
Francis connected with Boeheim over the summer after many botched attempts and picked his brain about how he teaches his masterful 2-3 zone.
“It took three summers with Jimmy Boeheim at Nike Camp. I kept buying him beer, and he kept telling me he was going to tell me, but he didn’t tell me until about the third year. It cost be about 100 dollars in beer,” Francis said before laughing. “We sat down and talked about it.”
Give Francis the benefit of the doubt, his Patriots are one of a handful of undefeated teams and one of two teams with a 13-0 record (Quince Orchard) in the entire state of Maryland.
The zone isn’t the main reason why Old Mill hasn’t lost yet. Rather, it’s the versatility that can turn a contest into a track meet or, with the the 2-3 zone, suppress the quickest teams and make them play a steady pace.
Old Mill started the second half on a 9-2 run, breaking a 22-all halftime tie to take a 31-24 lead at the 4:33 mark in the third quarter. Robinson pushed the lead to seven on a pull-up fast break jumper.
The Millers extended their lead the nine, 35-26, when Robinson connected on two free throws.
Robinson then scored eight straight Miller points to give Old Mill their largest lead at 39-28 and a commanding nine-point lead, 41-32, with 5:32 to go.
Meade pulled to within six, 47-41, with under three to go, but Old Mill responded with three straight points to take a nine-point lead once again.
Manzi Thames led Meade (8-4) with 19 points. Ryan Savage added seven points for Old Mill, who looks to remain undefeated and vye for the 4A East region crown.
“The thing is, it’s a puzzle,” Francis began, describing the key to his scorching start. “You know how it is, everyone has a piece in the puzzle. We need every piece in order for the puzzle to be complete. And right now, every piece is shining.”
