Clavin helps lead Derby over Maize

Josh Clavin scored a team-high 20 points and led Derby to a 69-62 victory over Maize on Friday.

That sentence seemed far-fetched a year ago when Clavin was primarily a junior-varsity player at Derby. But Clavin dedicated himself to becoming a better player for his senior season and has learned how to even out his confidence, his biggest struggle the past three years.

Now Clavin is averaging 11.9 points and playing a crucial role for a successful Derby (11-3) team.

“He’s always had the potential, but it was just a matter of confidence,” Derby coach Brett Flory said.

When Clavin and fellow senior Trevor Gordon have their confidence like they did Friday night on the road, Derby is a difficult team to defeat.

With Nyjee Wright (19 points), Clavin (20) and Gordon (15) combined to score 54 of Derby’s 69 points.

“If you’re going to have a big three, then you’re going to need the big three to show up every night,” Flory said. “You can’t have one and a half or two or whatever.”

It was a game of runs that left both coaches feeling like their teams relaxed once establishing a lead.

The first example came when Derby established a nine-point lead early in the third quarter before Maize outscored it 21-8 over the last five minutes, rallying behind the superb play of senior guard Grant Bugbee (game-high 26 points).

But then Maize (9-6) fell victim to the same trap. After the Eagles had played so well to obtain the lead, they suffered a three-minute lapse at the start of the fourth quarter — a 13-2 Derby run —that would cost it the game.

“We have to compete every possession. We can’t just compete 16 or 20 minutes of a 32-minute game,” Maize coach Chris Grill said.”We had some good moments tongiht where we did a good job of competing, but then we stopped doing the things that got us there.”

During Derby’s decisive run to kick off the fourth quarter, Gordon and Wright were able to hit three-pointers against Maize’s zone defense — a focal point of Flory’s game plan.

“He told us to take it personally,” Gordon said of Maize’s zone. “They don’t think we can shoot, so we have to make them pay.”

Maize briefly cut the deficit to six after a Caleb Grill (13 points) three-pointer with 1:33 remaining, but never clawed closer.

“What a response,” Flory said. “That’s the most I could have hoped for coming out of the break. I’m really proud of the guys.”

And who was there to close out the game at the free-throw line?

Clavin, who scored 11 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and made six free throws in the final two minutes to help give Derby its fourth straight win at Maize.

It seemed like a momentous leap from where he was last year, but Clavin said he’s not satisfied yet.

“Last year and where I was at motivated me a lot for this year,” Clavin. “This means a lot, but I’ve got to keep working hard because the season isn’t over yet.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 10:35 PM with the headline "Clavin helps lead Derby over Maize."