TUSTIN – Savanna shooting guard Michael Enis proved early on Friday night he could put the ball in the basket pretty much any way he wanted.
The 5-foot-10 senior knocked down his 3s, got to the basket by driving the lane, while consistently hitting his mid-range jumper.
There’s no doub his individual performance was impressive. Unfortunately for Savanna, it wasn’t enough to overcome a Tustin squad that simply had more depth.
Despite a game-high 34 points from Enis, T.J. Shorts countered with 19 points of his own and led the Tillers to a 67-56 victory Friday night over Savanna in a nonleague game played at Tustin High.
“Enis is a tough cover, and he obviously gave us some problems tonight,” Tustin coach Ringo Bossenmeyer said. “ He’s a heck of a player and made some tough shots. But overall, we did a decent job on the defensive end.”
As effective as the Rebels two-guard proved to be, his teammates struggled against an active Tustin defense in the second half.
With the Tillers (11-2) leading, 34-25, at the break, Bossenmeyer switched from a man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone at the start of the third quarter.
While the zone didn’t necessarily bother Enis – who scored 20 of his 34 points in the second half – it did paid dividends for Tustin in the long run.
The only other scorers for the Rebels (10-6) in the final 16 minutes of play proved to be Mark Butler and Abraham Mansaray. Outside of Enis, Savanna went on to go 4-of-14 shooting from the field in the third and fourth quarters.
“Coming in, we didn’t want to let them penetrate because that’s what they’re best at,” Shorts added. “When we switched that zone in and stop letting them penetrate, they were shooting bad shots. Shots weren’t falling and we just took care of business.”
After leading Tustin with 14 points in the first half, Shorts played facilitator down the stretch, feeding the ball inside to his big men – George Wilson and Myles Garvin.
The Tillers two post players also finished the night in double figures, Wilson tallying 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Garvin added 15 points and nine boards.
“That was an emphasis for the whole game,” Bossenmeyer said. “We thought we definitely had an advantage inside with George on Myles posting up.
“I thought Myles was pretty active today and George – for the past six or seven games – has been playing really well.”
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
