Now a senior, Payne doing what it takes for Panthers
DURHAM – Coginchaug boys basketball coach Mike Brady felt like he had prepared his team to face Cromwell’s Victor Payne.
“When we were watching tape, it was ‘Don’t let him penetrate,’” Brady said Friday night after a 76-45 loss to Cromwell. “Then tonight he’s hitting 3s.
“We put 2-3 guys on him, different guys. We tried a zone; we haven’t played much zone this year. We thought we had a little more size. We tried. We tried.”
Payne, a 6-foot-4 senior guard who helped Cromwell to the Division IV state championship last year, scored a career-high 42 points Friday night against Coginchaug (9-4) in the Shoreline Conference win.
Cromwell is 10-2 but this season has been very different for Payne. Last year, he was a junior on a team with a number of seniors who were both leaders and scorers. Now he and Keanu Gomez are the only two seniors on a team full of mainly inexperienced varsity players.
And Payne is not a rah-rah type leader; he leads by example and the last few games, he was in a bit of a slump (even though he was still leading the team in scoring and the Panthers were still winning). He was happy to break out of it Friday.
“The last few games were a little rough,” Payne said. “We weren’t playing with as much energy. Everybody had lower confidence, I guess.
“We wanted to show Coach (John Pinone) especially and the whole Shoreline league that we’re the team to beat. We were mentally ready.”
Cromwell started off a little sluggishly Friday; Payne prefers to pass and get his teammates involved but sometimes that doesn’t work.
“I said, ‘Victor, keep shooting, they can’t stop you, keep shooting,’” Pinone said. “He’s a great kid – he wants to get everybody else involved. That’s great but when you have an open 15-footer or a
wide open 3 and you’re our best offensive player, you got to shoot the ball.”
Payne had 13 points in the first quarter, including a buzzer-beater to give Cromwell a 19-12 lead. He had seven points in the second quarter but in the third quarter, the Panthers’ defense started to gel and an 13-2 run capped the quarter and Cromwell led 55-28. Payne had 14 points.
He scored from all over – Payne had five 3-pointers, a dunk, some driving layups, jumpers, putbacks.
“Victor is a 1-2-3-4-5, wherever you need to put him,” Pinone said. “When he goes well, and Keanu goes well, we’re tough to beat.”
“This year, I have to be more aggressive,” Payne said. “I don’t know why, I stopped shooting second quarter and (Pinone) told me to shoot more.
“It’s definitely different from last year, especially not having a lot of experienced guys on the
team. We had four seniors and two juniors. This year we have a bunch of people where this is their first year starting so I have to be a better leader – be more vocal on the court and in the locker room. I’m not (vocal), I’m a quiet guy. It’s definitely a change for me.”
Pinone saw a big change Friday and was pleased.
“Last 3-4 games, he’s been sluggish, lacked the intensity on the defensive end,” Pinone said. “We worked on a few things in practice and we got the guys all focused on the same thing. They finally get it – if we defend, we can be pretty good.
“It’s a different team (this season). We had a lot more scoring punch last year. We could spread the court out, we had shooters. Now (Payne) has to do a lot more with the ball. Last year we could have him coming off the ball; he’s harder to defend. We’re getting better – tonight was a good step in the right direction.”