Shaw column: As always, Salisbury's defense ruled

East Bladen's C.J. Melvin during game. Salisbury high school defeated East Bladen in the 2A State Championship at Reynolds Coliseum on the NC State University. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

RALEIGH — The most important numbers surrounding Salisbury's girls basketball team Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum were 29 and 0, its overall record at season's end.

But its magic number was 30.

That's how many field-goal attempts the Hornets allowed East Bladen in their convincing state championship game victory, the same number Newton-Conover launched in an 11-point loss last weekend and Bandys managed in the regional semifinals 11 days ago.

"We're always trying to hold teams scoreless," second-year coach Andrew Mitchell said without flinching. "We put so much emphasis on defense in practice that it's easy to get them to respond at gametime. But still, 30 shots. That's not much. You're not gonna beat many teams doing that."

Much less a team eyeing its second straight state title. Salisbury's 49-37 win is a simple story, one we've all heard before, yet beautifully told.

"Defense," glass-eating forward Jessica Heilig said matter-of-factly. "Defense says it all."

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And Salisbury's brand was tougher than Harvard Law this season. At times the Hornets played with a quiet confidence, sort of like the kid who already knows what she's getting for her birthday. At others it resembled a frantic Chinese fire drill, with Bubbles Phifer, Doreen Richardson and the Holmes twins, Ayanna and Ashia, stalking opposing ballhandlers around the court, baiting them into taking low-percentage shots and making sloppy, ill-advised passes.

At least, that's what it looked like yesterday. Salisbury forced 24 East Bladen turnovers and prevented the Eagles from scoring a basket during a game-turning 13:35 span that bridged the third and fourth quarters.

"We couldn't really run our offense," losing coach Patty Evers mustered in her front-porch drawl after the previously unbeaten Eagles from Elizabethtown — a team that passed every test except its final exam — was overmatched. "We tried to, but I don't know what happened. Honestly, we're a whole lot better than we showed today."

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There's a perfectly sound explanation for that. East Bladen may have shot a pedestrian 10-for-30 from the field, but by the third quarter the Eagles were already gone, visibly rattled out of their comfort zone.

"In the third quarter, when everybody else was just letting them go, we started making these wild, crazy passes," said do-everything East junior Jazmine Kemp. "It was so frustrating."

East's bread-and-butter inside power game, anchored by 6-foot-2 junior C.J. Melvin and her glowing statistics, had a few shining moments but fell short of expectation.

"They were just everywhere," Melvin said after contributing 17 points and 12 rebounds. "Their guards played us very close. They kept me out of my spot, kept me from making any moves. Almost every time I got the ball I had to kick it back out because they were all arms and legs and fingers."

By her own estimation, Melvin has averaged close to 25 shot attempts per game.

"You can't just give her the shot," Salisbury's Ashia Holmes said outside the clamorous SHS locker room. "We put a lot of pressure on their guards so they couldn't get the ball to her. That was our focus. That's how we were gonna win the game."

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Orchestrating all of this was Mitchell, winner of 58 of 61 games since enlisting at Salisbury. He was a sharply dressed chessmaster on the bench, making well-calculated decisions and out-sprinting Evers down the stretch.

"I wouldn't say that we totally quit," she said. "But we stopped running our offense toward the end."

They did — out of necessity. Salisbury ruled the floor and the boards, finishing with 22 offensive rebounds a week after it confiscated 24 from Newton.

"It's tough when you're trying to get a rebound and then, out of nowhere, they sneak in, grab it and put it right back up," Kemp said. "That kept happening. Eventually it added up."

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And multiplied. Salisbury's second crown was a product of ideal circumstance — a defense that met and conquered nearly every challenge; an offense that barely broke par, yet produced when it mattered most; and a coaching staff that calmly and smoothly navigated past the few rough patches this team encountered.

As the clocked ticked to a close, Heilig showed a wide-eyed look of amazement.

"I was like, 'Wow! Is this really happening again?' I couldn't do anything but smile."

The same went for Mitchell and Phifer, the game MVP who clearly had her priorities straight.

"Without defense, none of this would have happened," she said in her trademark kitten's purr. "Without defense, we wouldn't have gotten this far."

And that says it all.

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Contact David Shaw at dshaw@salisburypost.com.