THURSTON – Thurston Colts sophomore Brody Corgain rotated in help defense, picking up the rolling North Eugene Highlanders player who was headed to the hoop. Corgain rejected the layup attempt, and a Colts teammate picked up the ball. Three passes later, the Colts’ Treyson Hill made an easy layup to give his team a 43-31 lead, kicking off a 10-2 Colts run to end the third quarter with an 18-point lead.
The defense-to-offense sequence was a theme of Tuesday’s 65-47 victory for the Colts. The visiting Colts recorded only seven steals, but were regularly forcing deflections and tough shots.
Defense has been a key to the Colts’ six-game win streak. In its first seven games, Thurston had a 3-4 record and was allowing 56.7 points per game; during the win streak that number has dropped to 44.7.
“Defense for us isn’t a formality. Defense for us is the priority,” Colts head coach Blaine Liberatore said. “We talk a lot about mindset defensively. It’s a mindset, and early in the year, I didn’t think our mindset was quite in the right place.”
“Nothing is easy”
Inside Thurston’s locker room, “nothing easy” is written in bold, black lettering on the whiteboard. The Highlanders have had things easy on offense for most of the season, scoring 71.4 points per game before Tuesday, which was third in Class 5A.
The Colts’ 51.5 points allowed per game was fourth, so that strength-on-strength matchup was likely where the game would be won or lost. Sure enough, the Colts holding the Highlanders to a season-low – 11 points fewer than its previous worst – was critical to its 18-point victory.
Liberatore and his assistants emphasize disciplined defense: making the opposition work to catch the ball, disrupting screens, contesting without fouling, and boxing out for the rebound.
In the 23 years that Liberatore has been with the Colts program – first as an assistant under Doug Piquette, and now in his 12th year at the helm – the philosophy has stayed consistent.
“We want to dictate what happens instead of being reactionary. We want to be proactive versus reactive,” Liberatore said.
It sounds simple, but more than anything else it requires intensity and conditioning. Despite the Colts playing only seven players, the Highlanders’ players were more often the team with hands on their heads, struggling to get their wind back.
The continuity in the Colts program has been important, but so has the continuity for this specific team. Piquette has two sons at Thurston, Logan, a senior, and Quinn, a sophomore. This Colts team is senior and sophomore heavy; Ridge Lindsay was the only junior of the seven players in the rotation against the Highlanders.
That is no accident.
Piquette has coached his sons’ youth teams since third grade, meaning he has coached nearly all of the sophomores and seniors on the roster since that time. Piquette’s message has always been clear: control what you can control.
Staying in control
In a game like the rivalry against North Eugene, where the Highlanders student section is heckling players and the game becomes disjointed because of a high number of fouls, that becomes vital. Liberatore preaches the same thing, and the consistency in the message is why the Colts seem so unflappable.
“We can’t control foul calls. We can’t control fans. We can’t control the other team,” Liberatore said. “There’s so many variables we can’t control, so we’re going to focus on the two things we can control: our effort and our attitude.”
Rebounding may have been the most important element in the winning recipe of last week’s game. The Highlanders had the size advantage on the Colts, and have dominated on the offensive boards all year. However, the Colts were able to flip the script, not only minimizing the second-chance opportunities for the Highlanders, but grabbing 15 offensive rebounds themselves.
Liberatore spoke about how the Colts excellent perimeter defense allowed help defenders to stay glued to their assignment and block out, where his team’s ability to penetrate on offense forced help defenders out of position and allowed his players an easier time crashing the glass.
Players stepping up
The impacts of two players off the bench, Corgain and Rylan Sharp, were big for the Colts as well. On the season, the Colts’ three top scorers – Lucas Labounty, Treyson Hill, and Leofatu Filipe – had combined for 77% of the team’s scoring output before facing the Highlanders.
When Filipe was struggling and picked up his third foul with 4:02 left in the second quarter, someone else was going to have to step up. Sharp scored a season-high 8 points and grabbed 5 rebounds, but also was continually in the right position defensively to force difficult shots.
“Rylan Sharp came in and was incredible for us. Such a huge lift,” Liberatore said.
Corgain, as a guard, was not replacing Filipe directly, but had a huge impact on the game. His block may have been the turning point in the game, and he led the Colts in offensive rebounds and steals, with 4 and 2, respectively. The sophomore stepping up in a rivalry game was a clinic in hustle and intensity.
“How good was he? Holy smokes. I thought he was awesome,” Liberatore said.
Controlling the pace of the game was another part of Liberatore’s gameplan. While the Colts were able to get out in transition off steals and long rebounds, the players did a good job of taking quality looks when they had them.
The style of defense the Colts play, staying disciplined and not risking getting out of position for turnovers, also serves to slow the opponent.
“That was the number one game key was we have to play the game at our tempo,” Liberatore said. “I told the kids before the game, if this game’s played in the 80s, North Eugene probably wins. But if this game’s played in the 60s, then I think we probably win.”
Liberatore said his team leaned on the Oregon Ducks’ football “Ducks vs. Them” series. The episode for the Penn St. game was “A Thousand Cuts.” Part of that approach, according to Ducks football coach Dan Lanning, was “death by a thousand cuts.” The Colts’ gameplan reflected that philosophy – in the discipline, intensity, and focus shown. The Colts played the Phil Collins song “In the Air Tonight” during the pregame – the song playing throughout the “Ducks vs. Them” series.
The Colts played like they had been waiting for this moment for all of their lives.
Thurston has won three in a row vs. the Highlanders. The rematch is Feb. 3 in Thurston.
On Friday, Jan. 16, the Colts capped their big week with another league victory over a top team, defeating No. 5 Crater 68-45. The defense flexed its muscles again, as 45 was a season-low in points for the Comets.
