ORANGE — Having a 6-foot-4 rim protector is always better than not.
When they can stretch the floor and shoot 3-pointers, its a combo any coach should want on their team.
Mahar boys basketball’s Deven Patch has been able to do both at times this summer season. During Thursday’s game against Lunenburg, a 60-56 comeback win for Mahar, Patch stretched the floor, generating team highs in rebounds (six) and points (13). Six of Patch’s points came from beyond the arc, while the rest came from midrange jumpers.
“(My height) definitely works to my advantage,” said Patch. “Being tall, no one expects you to be able to shoot, they all expect you to be inside. When they start seeing me shoot, they don’t think I can play inside. That’s what I’ve got to do down there.”
Mahar seemed to miss Patch’s shooting on Tuesday night against Pioneer. Patch went down with an ankle injury at the start of the game and sat out its remainder. Mahar went on to lose 52-31 and couldn’t really generate offense beyond the arc, connecting on only three 3-pointers, two from Matt Lyesiuk and one from Jordan Desrosiers.
In the team’s previous game against Oakmont on June 21, Mahar won 59-32. Patch contributed a team-high 19 points, 12 from beyond the arc.
During that game, Patch had a more difficult time playing under the basket though, generating just three rebounds. His height was neutralized as Oakmont boxed him out of the paint more often than Lunenburg.
“They have to work on their inside game,” said Mahar summer basketball coach Enver Softic after the win against Oakmont. “If they become very predictable, then that 3-point game disappears very quickly for them. So I think we have players that need to develop the inside game, the outside game. … Deven can shoot, but will also have games where you shoot the same number of time, the results haven’t been the same. Living and dying by the 3 is dangerous.”
During the regular season, Patch had spans where it felt like he couldn’t miss, netting 18 points in a 66-37 win over Turners Falls. He followed that up with a 15-point performance against Athol High School and 11 points against Pioneer Valley. But Patch also had periods of four points in a win over Mohawk Trail Regional High School. He followed it up with two points against Belchertown.
Although Patch and Softic expressed that, as a team Mahar wants to work on its 3-point shooting this summer, Patch expressed he wants to work on his interior presence.
“Not so much, I’m trying to get rid of it,” said Patch about working on his 3-point shooting. “It’s hard when I play kids that are twice my weight, so I can’t really do much inside in those games.”
Mahar won’t have to desperately rely on Patch either. The team has Eli Gonzalez, another powerful interior presence capable of rebounding the ball and will have shooters such as Lyesiuk and Desrosiers to work with. Charlie Barnes can shoot too, giving Mahar several options.
Mahar’s options are young, however. As things stand on the summer basketball team, Mahar has two incoming seniors but several incoming juniors, with the rest of the squad filled out with incoming sophomores.
As the summer season moves along, that youth will catch up to Mahar at times, but it shouldn’t be something to shy away from going into the final three weeks of summer action.