Murphy – If there’s one play that summed up Murphy’s decisive road win over Andrews on Friday night, it came late in the third quarter.
Ty Laney put a layup attempt high off the glass, and it bounced off the front of the rim. As the ball bounced up, Zach Skogen came in and slammed it home for two of his game-high 27 points.
Though Skogen wasn’t the tallest player on the court, he was easily the best player on the court, looming large in a 69-50 win over the Wildcats.
“I’m definitely getting more comfortable with the ball,” Skogen said. “That’s one of my big things I need to work on. My teammates find me when I’m open, and I try to find my teammates when they’re open.”
When Murphy is clicking, it goes through three players. One is senior point guard Dillian Brown, who conducts the offense and can hit pull-up 3-pointers and get to the basket. The second is junior Dominick Rummler, a 6-foot-6 post player who has a soft touch around the basket and is a rim protector on defense.
With those two providing the traditional inside-out combination, Skogen fits in as more of a unicorn with his 6’5 frame in the Big Smoky Mountain Conference. Compared to Rummler, Skogen has more of a face up game. His three-point stroke has gotten better in recent weeks, and he’s still able to clean up misses around the rim if he gets the right angle.
The shooting stroke was on display early, as he hit three three-pointers in the first quarter as Murphy (14-8 overall, 6-3 conference) jumped out to a 21-9 lead. That hot stroke made Andrews (13-10, 2-7) have to guard him on the perimeter, and he took advantage, blowing by defenders to get to the basket.
“This summer I played some pretty tough competition,” Skogen said. “I played a lot of basketball so it ain’t nothing new.”
The Bulldogs led by as many as 20 in the first half and 39-22 at halftime. Murphy jumped on Andrews from the beginning, playing with a little more intensity and confidence. The Bulldogs shots were falling, compared to the ice-cold Wildcats on the other end. They even mixed in a few second chance points, with Ty Laney having two put-backs in the first quarter and Hunter Carson another in the second quarter.
Even with four Murphy players picking up two fouls in the second quarter to make the Bulldogs’ rotations somewhat different than usual, Andrews was never really in the game.
The Wildcats cut the lead to 32-19 late in the second, and again to 47-34 in the third quarter. But both times, the Bulldogs got some quick baskets to get a cushion, with a 10-0 run to close the third quarter putting the game out of reach.
The start and command of the game was a rebound from two days earlier against Highlands. Coming off a tough 70-66 win the day before against Swain County, Murphy let a Highlanders team they beat 71-29 in December hang around in the fourth quarter of a 58-43 win.
Against Andrews, they left no doubt.
The Bulldogs entered last night’s regular-season finale against Cherokee in second place in the conference, with a shot at a split of the conference championship with a win and a Robbinsville loss to Swain County. If that happens, whoever advances further in the upcoming conference tournament would be seeded with other conference champions. If the Black Knights beat the Maroon Devils, that would mean one potential home playoff game, compared to a potential two games with a conference title.
However, there’s plenty of regular season and conference tournament action that will happen across 1A before the brackets are set on Feb. 18. But whatever happens over that time, the Bulldogs are playing their best basketball of the season, which is what you want this time of year.
“This team understands that if we are to be successful, it is going to take all of us,” coach Erik Laney said. “We began the year with the mindset that we have to improve each and every day.”