Saxony Lutheran girls basketball team leans on old cliche to reach great heights

Go ahead and call the Saxony Lutheran girls basketball team a walking cliche if you'd like, but if the Crusaders are going to win a state championship -- which they set out toward today starting in a Class 3 semifinal in Columbia, Missouri -- they're going to do it with defense.

Yes, Saxony is more than capable of scoring points, but it's a squad for which success has come on the back of shutting other teams down.

"Points are hard to come by," Saxony coach Sam Sides said. "The better teams we play, they're going to play good defense, and that's going to make it tough to get good shots and be hard to put points on the board.

"I really don't care how many points we score as long as we score more points than the other team."

The Crusaders have seen how challenging it can be to simply light up the scoreboard against elite competition. In last weekend's quarterfinal win over defending state champion Park Hills Central, Saxony had stretches of limited point-scoring output -- including a three-point third quarter -- and struggled to find any space to get off a quality shot against a terrific group of defenders. The only way to victory was to match that defensive effort, defeating the Rebels 45-39.

Sides' squad has shown defensive improvement as the season has gone on. Certainly caliber of opponent is one factor -- as is health of personnel -- but after allowing 40 points or more three times in their first nine games of the season, the Crusaders have allowed 40 points just three times since (20 games). That came to bear in the last two playoff games, when Saxony held top-ranked Park Hills below that threshold after stymying a Twin Rivers team that had put up 57 on it early in the year. This time, the Royals managed just 32.

The Crusaders are allowing just 30.7 points per game.

"I don't want them to score at all. That's the attitude," Sides said. "'On this possession, I don't want them to score.' That's not going to happen 100 percent of the time, but that's the mindset I want them to have -- that they're not going to score this possession."

Tess Daniel, who considers defense one of her most important contributions to the team, said the key to her team's success on that side of the ball is being on the same page.

"You have to work together," Daniel said. "Coach always says, 'It's not man-to-man defense, it's team defense.' If one part of your defense isn't working, the whole thing will break down. You constantly have to talk and work together. That's the key of defense -- talking and helping each other and being aware of your surroundings. Communication is the biggest thing on defense."

That man-to-man scheme is one of the things that makes the Crusaders' system both unique and potent. It's a no-frills approach to defense -- the most basic in the game -- but not necessarily one a lot of high school teams used, especially girls' teams. Even teams that like to press often fall back into a zone look in the half court. But not Saxony. It puts a player on a player and shuts things down.

"I've got athletes, and athletes can play man to man," Sides said. "Man to man is more demanding -- it's more physical and takes more energy -- but we take advantage in that regard. The harder you play, you can beat teams that may have a little more skill than you, but if they're not ready for that aggression and that effort, then we have an advantage.

"Mostly man to man has been our best defense. We're going to make you beat us against our best."

Athleticism is important to what Saxony does, but it's only one piece of the puzzle. The rest comes from years of experience, a natural intelligence and a whole lot of want-to.

"I always tell them defense is mainly effort. A little bit of brains and a whole lot of effort," Sides said. "This group here, they like to compete and their effort is usually outstanding, and that's an advantage we have over most teams. So we're not going to sit back and play passive. This team can go out and challenge people and put heat on people.

"With their personalities, I think it suits us better to play a more aggressive style."

But despite all the physicality involved with man-to-man defense, it's what's up top that has made the Crusaders stand out. An ability to understand what the other team is trying to do and then beat it to the punch is how the group often gets a jump on its opponent. When you watch Saxony play defense and wonder how they're so often in the right place at the right time, it's all about what's going on between the ears.

"They're smarter -- basketball smarter -- and they can see things coming," Sides said. "They can see what teams are trying to do and kind of get on top of that. Instead of sitting back and trying to react to it, they're already acting. We're trying to dictate to the offense what they can do.

"To me, having smarts -- most of these girls are good students -- that's a weapon like having a good jump shot or being quick of foot or being a good leaper. If you've got intelligence, that's an asset.

"I always tell them they're the smartest person in the huddle, because I'm sure not at their level."

Sides trusts in that intelligence. Often times he lets his girls dictate what happens, whether that's through suggestions on what might work or letting the players make decisions for themselves on the court, including who they will match up against and guard.

"The other day in [the quarterfinal] 'B' [Brianna Mueller] comes up to me and says, 'We need to do this,' and I said, 'You're right. Let's go.' So, I try to let them use their brains because they're the ones doing it," Sides said. "I try to listen to them. I don't always agree with what they're saying, but I listen to them and if I think it might work, then that's what we do because they've got to believe in what they're doing."

So far it has worked. The Crusaders sit at 27-2, have won 23 games in a row and are coming off back-to-back impressive defensive performances when it mattered most.

Saxony has leaned on its defense all season, and it has no plans to stop now.

"The Cor Jesu game [on Jan. 16], I think we held them to 16 points. They're a Class 5 school and were a final four team last year," Sides said. "They're not the same team they were last year, but still. We only scored 35 ourself, but to only score 35 and beat them by 20? That's pretty impressive. And then Poplar Bluff [on Feb. 8]. Another Class 5 team and we held them to 15, I think it was. I don't care who you are, that's pretty good defense.

"When we're into it and helping each other, we're hard to score on, and that's what I want us to be because I think that's our strength."