Stone gets back to basics for Alden Bulldogs

ALDEN - Zack Stone just needed to get back to basics. Alden High School’s high-scoring senior guard was having some trouble getting his shot to drop. A little time with his coaches and a sound follow-through was all it took to get his point totals to surge again.

“When you can’t shoot, you just have to get back to fundamentals,” Stone said after snapping a mini-slump with a career-best 26 points in a win over John F. Kennedy. “The last few games I’ve been in a slump and I just worked with my coach on my shot.”

He followed that up with a 14-point effort three nights later as the Bulldogs completed a rare season sweep of perennial power Lackawanna. That was his 10th double-digit scoring performance of the season.

The 6-foot-2 senior, who plays both forward and guard, has averaged 14 points per game and knocked down 19 shots from 3-point land.

“Zack’s been a solid player for us,” Alden coach Andrew Smith said. “He’s probably one of our more talented offensive players. He can get his own shot and he’s deadly from the 3-point shot when he’s open.”

Offense is nice, but it’s the effort at the other end of the board that has kept Alden successful. The Bulldogs surrender just 52.1 points per game and that total drops to 49.3 points per game in Alden’s nine victories.

“Most of the games we’ve lost, we’ve blown defensively,” Stone said. “We’re more of a defensive team and when we play well on defense, we can be successful.”

That solid defensive play has also helped at the other end. Steals and rebounds have led to quick hoops at the other end of the floor.

“We try to feed off our D for easy baskets,” Smith said.

Stone’s always a part of all that. But while he’s usually one of the standouts every night, he’s not the only one. In fact, it’s a balanced effort that has kept the Bulldogs competitive in ECIC-IV.

“We don’t have one true star,” Smith said. “We’re a pretty well-rounded team with seven or eight guys that can score and play good defense.”

The Bulldogs entered their regular-season finale against Christian Central with a 9-8 record and Alden finished 7-5 in division play. When the Section VI playoffs roll around, Stone and the Bulldogs hope that will improve.

I think we’re ready to make a big run in the playoffs,” he said. “It’ll be interesting.”