Highland basketball team wilts under Louisville Doss pressure at Mater Dei Tournament
The Highland boys basketball team had a chance to end pool play Wednesday, Dec. 29, in the 60th Annual Mater Dei Christmas Tournament with a victory.
However, the Bulldogs — who lost their first game in the tournament to Briarcrest Christian (59-30) of Memphis (Tennessee) on Tuesday, Dec. 28 — were not ready for the athletic speed and frenetic pressure defense of Louisville Doss High School from Kentucky
Doss, highly regarded as one of the top prep programs in Kentucky, used its suffocating pressing and trapping defense to jump out to a 14-4 lead and never looked back, rolling to a 69-38 victory over HHS at Mater Dei High School in Breese.
Facing a talented and deep roster such as the Doss Dragons a day after taking on Memphis titan Briarcrest Christian was a bit too tall of an order for the Bulldogs. Furthermore, the Dragons sped Highland up on both ends of the floor from the outset.
“It was about the same as last night when we played Briarcrest — it would be a battle start to finish and playing against a lot of good athletes that are good basketball players. And these guys can shoot the rock,” Highland assistant coach Billy Sullivan said. “We tried to have a short memory about last night and forget about yesterday and it didn’t look like we did that.”
Big man Tony Moss got the Dragons going with three quick buckets for a 6-0 lead. Highland answered on a basket from Cade Altadonna and a two from Joe Jansen to cut the gap to 6-4.
The Dragons responded with a field goal from Marcus Barker and then, working off their stifling man-to-man and zone pressure defense, Moss dropped in a two. Inslee Carroll then got loose for back door basket and the Doss lead grew to 14-4.
Playing at an uptempo pace definitely was difficult for HHS.
“Even if we’re switching everything (defensively) they’re quick at every position and all five (of their) guys shoot the ball (well) too,” Sullivan said.
Doss led by 15 points at the end of the first quarter and held the Bulldogs to just 11 second-quarter points while posting 32-15 halftime lead.
First half foul trouble also hurt Highland as Altadonna and Jansen were both saddled with two fouls by the middle of the second quarter.
The Dragons began to pull away in the third quarter as baskets from Jeremiah Glover and Barker pushed the lead to 43-20 late in the period. Doss cruised from there.
Altadonna returns
Althought the outcome was not ideal, Altadonna’s return represented a bright spot. Back on active duty Monday, Dec. 27, Altadonna played extended minutes for the first time since returning from an ankle injury during football season and led Highland with 13 points.
“We started him on minute restrictions Monday and he was only playing two minutes at a time against (Breese) Central. Then, we bumped it up to about three or four minutes and then today we had the trainer with us and he said he looked fine out there,” Sullivan said. “It’s always nice to have a kid like him on the court and just getting Cade back on the court is huge for us in general. He’s our leader.”
Moss led Louisville Doss with 16 points. Carroll scored 15 points and Cameron Jackson added 11 points off the bench.
Highland drops tournament finale
The Bulldogs (6-8) finished tournament action at 2-3 following a tough 44-42 loss to host Mater Dei in the fifth place game Thursday, Dec. 30.
In previous tournament action, Highland defeated Breese Central 43-39 and Wesclin 55-42 on Monday, Dec. 27.
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 7:20 PM.