EAST MACHIAS — Not so long ago, Ben Teer and Noah Von Rotz were both the next big thing.
Teer was dominating middle-school opponents in Jonesboro, Von Rotz at the Rose Gaffney School in Machias. And whenever they played against each other, basketball fans in the area paid special attention.
Today the former rivals are teammates at Washington Academy, junior guards who have led the Raiders to a 13-1 record and the No. 1 seed in Eastern Maine Class C after Tuesday night’s 59-46 victory over three-time defending EM champion Calais that avenged the Raiders’ lone loss of the season.
“It’s really difficult for teams to contain them,” said WA coach Kenrick Liburd. “Sometimes a team plays zone and one of the guys goes off, or a team will try to go man-to-man and realize they can’t contain the dribble. At the end of the day, I think they both kind of complement each other.”
The 5-foot-6 Teer is the long-range shooter with a knack for timely drives to the basket. He’s averaging a team-leading 17.4 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field, 73 percent from the free-throw line and 38 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
“We ask Ben to be very responsible with the ball in his hands,” said Liburd. “He shoots 200 or 300 shots every night, and he knows he can knock down shots. The big thing is whether he can share it and give the ball up and get his teammates involved, but he realizes when he does that more he gets more points himself because the ball keeps coming back to him.”
The 6-foot Von Rotz averages 13.1 points per game on 50 percent shooting from the field, with much of his offense coming from slashing drives into the lane and midrange jumpers.
“Noah’s just starting to understand his own capabilities as a basketball player,” said Liburd. “He’s starting to play with a high level of intensity at the defensive end. He’s coming thinking defense first, and I think he’s matured a lot with his attitude. He understands he can be our defensive leader.”
And that thinking represents perhaps the biggest fundamental change in the WA program since Teer and Von Rotz stepped on campus, because the Raiders have been known traditionally for focusing on fast-paced offense.
That thinking remains, complemented by an attention to defense.
“We focused more on offense last year, but this year when we come in it’s always defense, defense, defense,” said Teer. “I think that’s what gets our momentum going and our tempo going.”
“We come in for practice and do a lot of our defensive drills, because we already have a lot of offensive weapons,” added Von Rotz. “We just need to work on our defense because that’s what wins games.”
A similar complementary relationship between Teer and Von Rotz wasn’t immediately evident upon their arrival at WA as freshmen in the fall of 2006.
“When we came in, outside of the gym there was always talk about who’s going to be the best between us, and that caught us off guard,” said Teer. “We were always thinking, ‘if he does something, can I do something better or if I do something, can he do something better.’”
“We started out that way,” added Von Rotz. “Outside everybody was talking, and it kind of got us to butt heads our freshman year in practice.
“But now we play good together, and getting the ‘W’ is all that matters now.”
Teer and Von Rotz are among the team leaders — along with captains Matthew Smith and Bryce Colbeth — of a relatively young WA squad that starts just one senior.
“To be honest I think we’re further along than I thought we were going to be,” said Liburd. “When I came in at the start of the season, these guys shocked me with their maturity. We’ve got a bunch of juniors and some people think we’re young, but the minutes they’ve played before make them no longer juniors and sopho-mores.”
A home-court loss in last year’s preliminary round may have exposed some of that youth, but also has served to speed up the maturation curve.
“Their hunger to learn and get better after such a disappointment last year drives them to want to never, ever let that happen again. They want win every single basketball game,” said Liburd.
And now, with an added year of experience and one of the top backcourt combinations in Eastern Maine, there are many who feel this may be the year Washington Academy evolves from perennial contender to championship timber.
Stable guard play will be crucial to that effort, and so far this season the Raiders’ backcourt combo of Teer and Von Rotz have combined to commit a bit more than 2.5 turnovers per game.
“When we’re in games and we’ve got a five- or six-point lead, I don’t feel like we’re ever going to blow a five- or six-point lead in the fourth quarter because they play composed, they play defense and they take care of the basketball,” said Liburd. “We don’t turn it over much, and when you’re taking care of the basketball you always feel good about the fourth quarter.”
