Using the Sideline as an Extra Defender

These five defensive possessions from the January 12, Victory Baptist game prove two things: the defense should use the sideline as an extra defender when given the chance, and the Eagles players do a great job of listening to their coaches and learning quickly.
The first three possessions, taken from the first half, show the Victory Baptist guards dribbling hard up the right sideline, which often happens when a team faces defensive pressure in the backcourt. An objective of our defense is to put enough pressure on the ball to get the ball handler to get "out of control", which essentially means that his focus is solely on the task of driving past his man, and therefore not on finding an open teammate or getting his team into a good offensive set. In this situation, it is important for the on "the ball" defender's teammates to help when the ball handler starts to beat his defender up the court. Because the ball handler is dribbling up the sideline, the "help man" has a great opportunity to use the sideline as an "extra defender". In fact there are two potential "extra defenders" during these plays, the sideline and the halfcourt line, not to mention the two actual defenders that have an opportunity to trap the ball handler.
Rather than take this opportunity, three different Eagles shy away from the potential contact and allow the ball handler to advance the ball up the sideline. One play results in a foul against the Eagles and another in a basket for Victory Baptist. During none of the first three plays do the Eagles take advantage of the opportunity to trap the ball and either force a turnover or otherwise wreak havoc on the offense.
Yet the Eagles quickly learned, after a halftime lecture, how to stop the ball from advancing up the sideline, as is evident in the next two possessions taken from the second half. Kip Custer (#10 blue) and Nathaniel Crown (#24 blue) both, on consecutive possessions, help the "on the ball" defender by cutting off the path up the right sideline. This causes the offense to work much harder and leads to a deflection in the first possession and a turnover in the second.