Defense powers Tecumseh boys basketball to big win

ADRIAN — The saying goes, defense wins championships.

For the Tecumseh boys basketball team, defense has the program eying a Southeastern Conference White Division championship after years of being near the bottom of the conference.

It was on full display Friday night when Tecumseh shutdown the most potent offense in Lenawee County, rival Adrian, along with its dominate 1-2 punch of senior Joe Francis and freshman Stevie Elam.

"Francis only had 10, which is his season low, and Elam only had (four)," said Tecumseh head coach Jamison Webster. "They average 47 points combined."

The Maples began this week averaging 70.5 points per game with Francis leading the county at 28.5 while Elam was 11th at 15.3.

Tecumseh held Adrian under 40 points for the first time all season while Francis and Elam combined for 14 points as Tecumseh picked up the regular-season sweep with a 46-38 win.

Entering the fourth quarter, Tecumseh had a slim 30-28 lead when Grant Mossburg opened the quarter with a steal and took the ball the length of the floor and finished while drawing the foul.

Mossburg missed the free throw, but David Hunt collected the rebound and scored. On the other end, Chenevey rebounded a missed 3-pointer from Francis and took it down the floor for another layup.

Tecumseh went on a 7-0 run in the opening three minutes of the fourth quarter to create a gap the Maples couldn't close.

With time running out, Adrian needed its two standouts to try and make something happen. But neither Francis or Elam could get good open looks, as was the case most of the night.

"They face guarded (Elam), which we thought was coming," said Adrian head coach Jordan Kelly. "They tried to take the ball out of those two's hands and try to make other guys win the game and they did a nice job of it. We did have a lot of open shots that we expect guys to make, we just didn't make them."

Called to the task of guarding Francis and Elam were Jacob Burns and David Hunt.

The two were in the face or on the hip of the Maple standouts all game long and were the key pieces in Friday's win.

"Jake Burns played probably his best game all year," said Tecumseh junior Ryder Zajac. "He had Joe Francis and they locked both of them up. David Hunt completely shut (Elam) down."

Tecumseh showed why it entered the week with the county's top defense, allowing an average of 42 points per game.

However, the week didn't begin the way the team wanted, losing on the road to Pinckney on Tuesday to suffer the first league loss of the season.

"I tried to tell the kids the game on the road Tuesday would be the toughest league game the rest of the way," Webster said. "We didn't have many fans there, we had to create our own energy and Pinckney came out and punched us in the mouth first. They had a lot more energy and it was an uphill battle the rest of the way."

There was no lack of energy Friday with a packed gym at Adrian High School.

Tecumseh used it to its advantage and came out with one of the biggest wins for the program in, at least, the last 20 years.

The victory not only clinched a sweep of Adrian, it put Tecumseh at 10-2 on the season and 4-1 in the SEC White.

It's the first time in more than two decades Tecumseh has posted 10 wins and it is currently in first place of the league with two games to go with 5-2 Chelsea while the rest of the league has at least three losses.

"Beating Adrian twice is an awesome accomplishment for us," Zajac said. "First time we've done that since 2015 and they said it's the first time we had 10 wins in over 20 years. We were hype in the locker room."

Tecumseh has a busy week ahead, starting with a non-league game at 7 p.m. Monday when it hosts Whitmore Lake.

The team returns for Wednesday for a home game against Jackson before Friday's matchup with Chelsea on the road.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Tecumseh boys basketball uses defense to top Adrian