In their first meeting against North Callaway, the Centralia boys didn’t have the defensive intensity they did on Saturday.

The Panthers didn’t have as productive a bench the first time either as the reserves scored 43 points in a 55-41 victory over North Callaway (4-2) in the Centralia tournament fifth-place game. Hunter Hull, who was named to the all-tournament team, and Ethan Ross led Centralia (4-3) with 18 and 15 points, respectively, off the bench.

Head coach Brandon Crites said Centralia’s defense had more layers than it did in its second game of the season against North Callaway. 

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“We, at that point, had only practiced switching ball screens off ball screens,” Crites said. “We were able to throw different coverages out there today. When we did switch, we switched up into the ball instead of switching and staying at the level of the screen, which left them open for a lot of shots that they hit last time.”

Crites said the Panthers’ communication “improved drastically” to help Centralia overcome a 23-19 halftime deficit and take its first lead at the end of the third quarter. Ethan Ross was part of that by hitting two of his three 3-pointers in the second half.

Ross said he hadn’t shot the ball well this well, but they were falling for him on Saturday. He said the Panthers’ defensive intensity fed into the offense, and he did his part with six steals.

“We had some steals on the press,” Ross said. “That’s what really helped us. Our defensive intensity was a lot better, especially in the third and fourth quarters.”

Austin Brown finished with 11 points and drained three 3-pointers. Jamarion Glover led the Thunderbirds with 15 points and 11 rebounds and his efforts in the post earned him a spot on the all-tournament team. Anthony Ford had seven points and eight rebounds in Centralia’s starting lineup.

Ross said North Callaway did hit shots from the perimeter last time. Centralia’s defense took away North Callaway’s methods of scoring from last time, Ross said, and the defense has improved in those areas.

“Last game, they shot 40 percent from three on us and 63 in the paint,” Ross said. “That’s a lot of fastbreaks and a lot of open threes. If we took away all the open threes and fastbreaks last game, we would win by about 15 like we did tonight.”

Crites said Centralia is getting closer to not thinking as much where it has to be on defense. He said the Panthers knowing the correct spots allows them to be faster. 

Hull and Ross provided Centralia much speed off the bench, and Crites said they recognized those players from years past.

“I told Ethan, ‘That’s the Ethan that I know we’re going to have for the rest of the year,’” Crites said. “With those two boys playing well, that changes things for us.”

Before the season, Crites said he was excited about the athleticism of his roster in his first year with Centralia. Ross and Hull are two of the team’s athletes that Crites is excited about.

Hull dunked a ball in the previous game’s victory against Macon, and then had two slams against North Callaway. Crites said he had no dunks in his last two years with Hallsville but has had 5-8 already with Centralia.

“They’ve got the athletic ability, the strength and natural God-given gifts,” Crites said. “They’ve also worked hard to refine to understand what we’re doing. They’re starting to, and it’s exciting.”

Centralia hosts Chillicothe (0-1) at 7 p.m. Friday, receiving a break after playing three games at its home tournament. After losing 55-47 to Van-Far in the first round thanks to 34 points and nine 3-pointers from Pacey Reading, Crites said Centralia did well bouncing back from that and used the lesson of “communication is key” to win the rest of the week, including beating Macon 54-32 in the semifinals.

If his players have questions about what Crites is trying to implement, he said there are “no bad questions.” He wants everybody on the same page. 

“We are still so far away from installing everything we want to install, even defensively,” Crites said. “Once we’re done with that, then we’re really going to shift focus to offense.”