BEYOND THE BOX SCORE: ELMIRA PAIR CHARGE WAY INTO LINEUP WITH THEIR DEFENSIVE EFFORTS (2023-02-14)

By Brian Fees
Southern Tier Sports Report
Anthony Kitching knew exactly what was earning him a spot in the starting lineup for the Elmira Express.

Kitching puts his focus on the defensive end, and that’s exactly why Elmira coach Ryan Johnson wanted the big man in the lineup.

“I love playing defense, I play it in soccer too,” Kitching said. “That’s just always been my main thing.

“He (Johnson) will put you in the starting lineup just for defense. He’ll praise your defense, if that’s what led us to the win.”

Johnson knows that it’s the effort on the defensive end that helped turn around the season for the the Express and get them into sectionals.

“It’s on the defensive end,” Johnson said. “Five games ago we inserted Anthony Kitching in for defense, because I just thought we were getting killed on the glass, and he’s come in and done a phenomenal job for us. To me, that’s the difference. WE are not giving up too many second and third chances.

“We have won four out of our last five, and we have held our opponents in the 50s. They were in the mid 70s and now the last five games it’s been in the 50s and we have won four out of those five.”

Just as Kitching has earned playing time with his defense, Ashtyn Traugott-Knoll knows that when he comes onto the court it’s to put in the work defensively.

“If I’m going in there that’s all I’m thinking,” Traugott-Knoll said. “Defense, defense, defense. In practice that’s all we do, defense, defense, defense, so in the game I’m going to play defense, defense, defense. Defensive first, offense second.”

A lot of this is like last year. A year ago the Express put Tyler Marks into the starting lineup because of his defense, and then went on a run to make sectionals. Kitching and Traugott-Knoll saw what happened a year ago and realized how much playing defense can get you playing time.

“He really put in the hard work, he did the dirty stuff that no one else really wanted to do and he got minutes for it, and we saw that,” Kitching said.

“Watching Tyler coming up, watching Tyler and being able to follow his footsteps,” Traugott-Knoll said. “He’s a smaller guy, he’s not going to score a bunch of points, and I’d rather have a charge or two than 15 points. That’s what I want to do, that’s what coach praises, and that’s what I want.”

The team even has a championship belt this year for the best defensive player each game.

“Deja vu man,” Johnson said of the way this year has changed with defense late in the year just like last year. “We also started our championship belt, our defensive championship. We give that to our guys that are diving on the floor, guys that are boxing out, grabbing rebounds, guys that are taking charges.

“It’s kind of motivating the kids, it’s something I thought of. We need some motivators on the defensive end and the kids have really responded well.”

It’s something that Traugott-Knoll wants to earn this year.

“We have a defensive championship belt, it’s for the best player (defensively) for that game that gets the belt,” Traugott-Knoll said. “Anthony has gotten it. Da’mon (Jackson) has gotten it. That’s my goal, I want that belt now, that’s what I want.”

For Kitching it’s special to be in the starting lineup now.

“It’s been a blast,” Kitching said. “I have been trying to work my way in there since the beginning of the season. I’m glad I found my way into the rotation.”

And, he takes pride in making stops on defense.

“The charges,” Kitching said. “He (Johnson) doesn’t even really care about the blocked shots, but just being in the right place at the right time is huge to him, and he praises us for that.”

Both players know that they can make an impact on games without scoring a lot of points.

“You might have zero points, but you might have two charges, four steals and that’s what he’s going to keep you in the game for” Traugott-Knoll said.

While defense is key for both Kitching and Traugott-Knoll, that doesn’t mean they don’t love making some impact on offense. For Kitching that included his first career dunk to seal the win over Corning.

“It felt great, I have been going up for dunks in practice a lot,” he said. “I’ve been doing it in warmups. I have just been waiting for my moment to do it and it was right there.”
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