No. 1 Myers Park boys crush Independence, set up showdown against North Meck
Myers Park’s nationally ranked boys’ basketball team is going to the Elite Eight for the fourth time in six seasons.
Playing in front of a group of loud home fans, the Mustangs came out with a plan to swarm Independence’s guards in a NCHSAA 4A quarterfinal Tuesday night. The idea was to try to frustrate an Independence team that beat Watauga by 25 points last week.
And the plan worked.
Myers Park, ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation, won 54-24 and set up the N.C. 4A game of the year Friday at home against North Mecklenburg. It’ll be a rematch of last year’s state semifinal that Myers Park won 72-51 in front of a sold-out crowd at Providence High.
Tickets for this year’s game will go on sale at 1 p.m. Friday.
On Tuesday, Independence led 11-10 after the first quarter, but only scored 13 points in the last three.
In three playoff games so far, the Mustangs have allowed 45, 28 and 24 points.
“Our kids decided to turn our energy up, our pressure was really gonna dictate possessions and it took (Independence) out of their rhythm offensively,” Myers Park coach Scott Taylor said. “We have a lot of talented guys who can make shots but they aren’t always gonna fall. The one thing we can always keep consistent is our effort on the defensive end and that’s what we did.”
That effort showed in the second quarter, when Myers Park scored 17 straight points and allowed Independence to score two.
Tennessee recruit Bishop Boswell scored 11 points for the Mustangs during that stretch, including three 3-pointers that changed the entire flow of the game.
“You have to adjust as the game goes and see how they’re playing and feel it out,” Boswell said. “The coaches have us ready.”
The Patriots came out in a 3-2 matchup zone, a tactic that Taylor and Mustangs were ready for.
“They came up really high and compressed a bunch of space at the top of the key,” Taylor said. “So normally with Ashton and Bishop, we’re able to get inside the zone off the dribble, but we didn’t have much space to do that. So instead, we tried to spread it out and distort the zone.”
Boswell agreed with his coach.
“It didn’t surprise us,” Boswell said of the Patriots’ defense. “We knew what was coming and we were ready for it.”
Junior center Sadiq White scored 13 points for the Mustangs, who also got nine points from Notre Dame recruit Sir Mohammed.
Now comes the highly-anticipated rematch with North Mecklenburg, which rallied to beat Mount Tabor 45-42 on the road Tuesday.
“They are a really good team, we’ve seen them last year so we just have to be ready to compete,” Boswell said. “We have a lot of momentum right now, so hopefully we can carry what we have going and get a win.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2024 at 11:15 PM.
