State 2B boys: Clay Fleming gave Lancers final crucial piece

Liberty coach Mike Thacker came to Spangle 5 years ago and immediately started teaching young basketball players his offensive and defensive systems.

Those young players aged and entered the high school program knowing all the broad concepts that Thacker wanted to employ. But the Lancers were missing that final piece that could turn a good team into one that could dominate.

Enter Clay Fleming, a 6-foot-5 senior, who transferred two years ago from Ferris and helped lead Liberty (24-2) to the State 2B quarterfinals at 12:15 p.m. today at the Arena against the Life Christian Academy Eagles (25-1) of Tacoma.

“He’s been a huge, huge lift for us,” Thacker said of Fleming. “He’s the kind of kid that we didn’t have, the hole that we needed to fill.”

Fleming became the Lancers’ second-leading scorer (15.5 points a game) after 6-8 senior Match Burnham, who averages 23.4 points and 10 rebounds a game.

Prior to Fleming’s transfer, Thacker said he tried to have other teammates essentially play out of position.

“Until Clay arrived, we were trying to push kids in a certain direction,” Thacker said. “But he gave us more length. Now I don’t have to play Match (Burnham) as much in the post as a lot of people think I should be.”

Fleming “was kind of the piece of the puzzle that we were missing,” Thacker said

Thacker said he had two good post players last year and he played Fleming at guard.

“That really wasn’t his spot, but he did it and gave us great length,” Thacker said. “In the summer, I put Clay in the post. He’s really comfortable there.”

That comfort showed in the 68-52 win last Saturday over Warden. Fleming scored 12 points but he had several key rebounds that sparked Liberty.

“He had five or six of the first 10 defensive boards against Warden,” Thacker said. “We were holding them to one shot. A lot of that had to do with Clay, because he was rebounding like crazy.”

With Fleming playing inside, it’s allowed Thacker to create a matchup nightmare by playing Burnham at guard.

The Lancers also have a 3-point threat in senior guard Kyle King, who averages nine points a game, and sophomore Chase Burnham, who averages six points a game. But Liberty also has 6-3 junior Keith Dumaw (six points a game) who can play inside, and 5-11 Jake Pottratz, who leads the team in assists.

“From point to post, I’ve got a lot of weapons I can move around the floor,” Thacker said.

While that length helped the Lancers win the Northeast 2B South with a 13-1 record, they apparently will need every bit of it when they take on Life Christian.

“Their lineup is very similar to ours,” Thacker said. “If you look at it on paper, it’s a pretty good matchup. They’ve got some length and we certainly have some length.”

Fleming said if the Lancers miss from the outside, the plan is to pound it inside against the Eagles.

“We are concerned a little bit. If you ever get this far, you deserve it,” Fleming said. “But if we just … play our game, I think we could play with anybody.”