Crane boys at state for first time in 17 years

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, February 28, 2007

By MIKE FERGUSON

The radio play-by-play for a Crane boys basketball game must sound a lot like this:

andquot;Davies sets a screen for Davies, then rolls to the basket. Davies shoots him a bounce pass, but he misses the shot! That’s Davies grabbing the rebound, lays it off the glass up and in!andquot;

When the sixth-rated Mustangs, 21-4 on the season, take the floor against second-ranked Mohawk at 1:30 this afternoon in the Class 1A Boys Basketball State Championships, three Davies boys will be in the starting lineup Dallen and Wes at guard, and Baxter manning the low post.

Dallen, a sophomore, and Wes, a senior, are brothers, the second and third of six Davies brothers who have played or, no doubt, will play at Crane.

Their older brother Zed, who wrestled at Crane, is a freshman this year at the Air Force Academy. Three younger brothers Eric, Jeff and Scott play for their Frenchglen Elementary School team.

Baxter Davies, a 6-foot-4 junior at Crane, is no relation to the six Davies brothers. andquot;but most people think he’s Dallen’s brother,andquot; says Dallen’s real brother, Wes.

In fact, the Davies brothers joke, Baxter may not be the best player in his own family. That honor, they claim, belongs to his sister Sarah, a 2006 Crane graduate who helped her team to a state title as a sophomore.

Seated around a hotel room Tuesday night before the biggest basketball game in their lives it’s been 17 years, before Dallen was born, since Crane’s boys team even qualified for the state tournament the Davies boys are relaxed and optimistic about their chances in the tournament. That despite the fact that andquot;we just played probably our worst game of the year,andquot; according to Crane Coach Stub Travis, describing a shaky 43-42 win over Triad last week that got the Mustangs into the Class 1A’s elite eight.

andquot;We win if we play together,andquot; Wes predicted of today’s game. andquot;Our skill brought us this far, but at the state tournament everybody’s equal. It’s teamwork and execution that gets you deep into the tournament.andquot;

Teamwork and execution come easily for the Davies brothers and their namesake post player, their coach said. The most obvious reason, he said, is that all three players have different styles and personalities that complement each other on the court.

Dallen Davies is quiet, whereas Wes is talkative. Baxter Davies likes to mix it up under the basket and chase after his teammates’ missed shots.

Dallen, who leads the team with a 24 points per game scoring average, andquot;is a great outside shooter and a really smooth player, a good athlete with great ability,andquot; Travis said.

Wes, on the other hand, likes to play defense andquot;because you can get into people’s headsandquot; by upsetting their timing and their shot, he said.

andquot;He always guards the best player on the other team,andquot; Travis said of Wes. andquot;He’s our leader on the floor. He keeps our younger kids working together.andquot;

Like the brothers, Baxter went out for the football team Travis coached this past fall andquot;and it really helped his physical game,andquot; his coach said. andquot;His freshman and sophomore years, he wasn’t very tough inside, but now he sure is.andquot;

At 22 points per game, big-man Baxter is the team’s second-leading scorer, and his 12 rebounds per game are tops on the squad.

Crane’s football team with all-league (and Shrine Game selection) Wes at quarterback throwing passes to both Dallen, another all-league performer, and Baxter lost in the state quarterfinals to St. Paul by coughing up the football six times in the first three quarters. But the players say the experience will help them deal with the butterflies sure to be fluttering today against Mohawk, a team andquot;that will full-court press us the entire game,andquot; Travis predicted.

andquot;They’ve already won two titles this decade, and they finished third last year,andquot; he said. andquot;We will have to play our best basketball just to stay with them.

andquot;Handling the pressure and playing together as a team are our big concerns,andquot; the coach added. andquot;If we can handle the pressure, we can be competitive at state.andquot;

A history of hoops

Wes and Dallen began playing basketball together nine years ago, when Wes was a third-grader and Dallen a first-grader. On the court, they say, they know what their brother will do almost before he does it. That kind of innate teamwork especially out of the guards, who handle the ball the most and are generally charged with running Crane’s motion offense has paid dividends for the Mustangs, Travis said.

andquot;It’s an advantage to have played so long together,andquot; Wes says. andquot;But occasionally we do get on each other’s nerves.andquot;

The brothers admit to traditional fraternal skirmishes, including an interest in the same girl, whom Dallen eventually won over.

The older brother admits he’s always been jealous of Dallen’s silky smooth jump shot, and Dallen wishes he could be as outgoing as his brother.

andquot;It’s OK,andquot; Wes says. andquot;I got all the glory in football. He’s patient, and I’m not. This (basketball season) is his turn.andquot;

This season, Dallen set the Crane scoring record with a 34-point outburst that included eight three-pointers. Had he connected on one more long-range bomb, he’d have broken the record set in 2003 by Crane assistant coach Chance Miller.

andquot;I kept running plays for him to get that record,andquot; Travis said, to which Miller gave the head coach a good-natured punch in the shoulder. andquot;He’s still got a couple more years to break that one.andquot;

Conversation then trailed off, and the Crane players and coaches excused themselves for a late dinner at El Erradero, a quick half-hour of ESPN’s Sports Center, then an early bedtime before Wednesday’s tournament opener.

Travis, who coached Crane’s girls team for 12 years before switching to the boys’ sideline this season, said he hopes the team that handed Spray its only loss to capture the district title will show up today not the one that barely beat Triad last week.

andquot;When they’re playing well together, we have a very fluid, high-powered offense,andquot; he said. andquot;Our success this year was getting them to play together. There are great athletes on this team, and many of them are here in this room,andquot; he said, gesturing to the Davies boys. andquot;Now it’s just a matter of getting them to execute.andquot;