C. Milton Wright boys basketball dismantles Patterson Mill, 63-38, in ‘measuring stick’ matchup

Mario Scott’s jacket never makes it past tip-off. The top piece of his two-piece suit folds neatly over the coach’s chair. He cuffs his sleeves and pops the top button, giving him enough breathing room to stomp up and down the sideline shouting instructions to his C. Milton Wright boys basketball team.

Well-ironed chaos — that’s essentially how his team plays, having shredded through its Harford County schedule with no more than a scratch. Add a convincing 63-38 win at Patterson Mill to the Mustangs’ resume.

Wednesday was the game the Mustangs have had circled on their schedule for some time, facing the other undefeated area team.

“We’ve played a tremendously tough schedule,” Scott said. “We know Patterson Mill is a tremendously coached team. … This was about us getting ready for the playoffs. This was another measuring stick.”

First it was Lake Clifton on Dec. 21, when the Mustangs snuck out with a 56-53 win. Then it was Edmondson, which handed C. Milton Wright its only loss, 62-46. Scott’s next barometer was the Huskies, who they dismantled and will have to see again Feb. 13.

But this first meeting had every fiber of a playoff atmosphere. The game was high-level chippy from the get-go, both team’s top players (figuratively) reaching for the other’s throats.

Mustangs point guard Cayne Woodland took Patterson Mill’s leading scorer Drew Pape off the dribble on the opening possession, burying a baseline 12-footer. Pape came down the other end and responded with a three. Back down the other way, it was C. Milton Wright’s Larry Thompson hitting his first of four 3-pointers.

Scott’s group’s ability to steady the chaos and make key shots helped them separate on the scoreboard. And it’s hard to defend so many options.

C. Milton Wright closed out the first quarter when Woodland curled off a pick-and-roll from Dylan Sander. Those two draw enough attention that Huskies eyes and feet pull to the middle of the floor. That’s when Woodland zipped a pass to Thompson for a corner three.

As Scott says, they like to play inside-out, meaning they funnel the ball toward the interior and if the look isn’t there, kick it to shooters on the wing, pulling the defense back and forth like a rubber band. And C. Milton Wright certainly has the tools to do so.

That starts with Sander in the middle, their forward who finished with 26 points on 12 layups. Scott defiantly called him their best player. Patterson Mill coach Jeroud Clark called him “a monster. He’s very talented.”

At one point in the second quarter, Sander barreled into the lane and flipped up a floater. His facial expression revealed right away he knew put too much on it. But when it banked in, he smirked and shrugged back towards his bench. A tough cover and clear difference-maker in the win.

“Dylan’s motor is incredible,” Scott said. “When good teams like that try to start taking away [that option], I think we have a really fantastic backcourt, obviously led by Cayne. They can create their own shots and make great reads. But I think it makes it very difficult to defend us when you try to take one thing away and we have two or three other options in our offense.”

Woodland is the steadying point guard who finished with 19 points. Thompson (15 points) is a spot-up shooter capable of getting downhill. Kyle Ashman, their other forward, had three. That trio plus Sander accounted for all 63 points.

“We had some rotation mistakes in the first half that led to some wide open threes,” Clark said. “When you make a mistake like that you just hope they miss.”

Patterson Mill surged in the second half with a run that nearly dwindled the deficit to single digits. A string of sinking difficult shots uplifted by a pair of charges helped the Huskies chip away, led by Pape’s 13 points and Colin Luddy’s 12.

Earlier this year, C. Milton Wright might have lost its composure amid that run; that was the Mustangs’ Achilles heel in the Edmondson loss. Scott lauded his team’s ability to weather that storm and pull one step closer to the level of well-dressed comfort they hope to be at come playoffs.

“When we’re not so reliant on one player,” Scott said, “We can spread it around. I thought we all managed the game well. We were under control. The takeaway there is we gotta build on that kind of basketball.”