The Leola-Frederick boys’ basketball team has pushed the pace on the basketball court this season.

The Titans have used a quick strike offense combined with pressure defense throughout the season. However, the concept was never planned on purpose; rather, it began last summer during an observation as the Titans participated in team camps.

“We had 10 kids get varsity time at camps,” Leola-Frederick coach Brock Pashen said. “In the summer you tend to get winded a lot faster than in the season, so we won a lot of games, not necessarily because we were better, but we are able to keep them fresher.”

Realizing the depth the team had, Pashen and assistant coach Alex Sumption asked themselves how they could use that depth to create more possessions, which in turn, meant more scoring opportunities.

“The best way to create more possessions is to play faster,” Pashen said. “We had done that in transition offense, but we had never pressured by any means consistently like we do now.”

They soon found film on YouTube of Nova Southeastern University, a Division II basketball program in Florida, and began working on implementing the school’s schemes this past fall. The next question Pashen and his coaching staff had to answer was a simple one.

“It was more or less the hesitancy of will it work?” Pashen said. “(Because) it is so unorthodox.”

That question was answered early in the season as the Titans played with depth and speed, which has carried the team to a 22-1 record this season.

Sophomore Milo Sumption said the tempo reminded him of his younger days of playing basketball.

“It sounded a lot similar to the way we had played in our younger grade school years and our junior high years,” Sumption said. “We just always had a lot of depth and a lot of well-conditioned guys. Running the floor was nothing new to us, so it sounded fun.”

Junior Noah Kippley said his favorite part about how the Titans play is knowing and trusting that the team’s depth will carry them throughout each game.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can all play well when we get on the court,” Kippley said. “It’s fun when you know you can go to the bench and you know you’ve still got a chance of everybody competing and building a bigger lead.”

Sophomore reserve Winston Clark says knowing the team has depth to work with and that he has a chance to see the court for several minutes is “reassuring.”

“You go in, you do your hard three minutes, you go up and down fast, take the shots if you got them, and then someone just as good, if not better, is coming in for you,” Clark said. “And they’re fresh too.”

Another added dimension to the up-tempo style of play is that many of the players have participated in cross-country and track and field, where running and conditioning is key. While the conditioning practices are different for all three sports, Clark noted that the aspect of running is still the key, and that aspect has been applied to the basketball court.

“Coach (Pashen) said we have had quite a few basketball players in the state track meet,” Clark said, “so he was like why don’t we apply that to basketball, so we just kept on running and running and running.”

The aggressive style not only comes with a physical aspect, but the mental aspect also plays a major role in how Leola-Frederick breaks its opponents down during a game with a suffocating press.

“The style of play is not to beat a team, it’s to break them down so you can beat them later,” Sumption said.

Kippley said there is plenty of quick decision making that happens while the Titans are pressing their opponents.

“It’s a lot of just give and take,” Kippley said. “If you see a trap, go trap. If you’re late or you’re not going to get there, just get back. It’s a lot of like you’ve got to make your decision, and that’s what it’s been like all year.”

Leola-Frederick will put its prolific, up-tempo attack on display this weekend at the State B Tournament in Aberdeen. The Titans will face third-seeded Castlewood in the opening round at 7:45 p.m. on Thursday at Wachs Arena, and while they all believe their style of play is a key to their level of success, Pashen noted the team will need to play well in other areas as well in order to make a deep run this weekend.

“We’ll have to play well in terms of just the regular stuff like boxing out, crashing the boards, and we’ll have to shoot well and make a lot of layups,” Pashen said. “Got to do what we’ve been doing and stick with it.”