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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Walsh Jesuit 54, Garfield 49: Warriors hold off Golden Rams
Walsh Jesuit and Garfield had to wait before taking the floor to warm up because there was blood on the ground that had to be cleaned up from the junior varsity game.
It was a precursor of what was to come.
The Warriors finally wrestled away from the Golden Rams (2-6) in the last two minutes and pulled out a 54-49 road victory Friday night at the Martin O. Chapman Gymnasium.
It was just the kind of game the Warriors senior forward, Antoine Smith, thrives on.
I love physical games, but thats just me. I like contact, said Smith, who scored eight points I was a little tired running up and down the court over and over again. Everyone was tired at the end.
Were on the road, [we] did not play as good as we can, but pulled out the win.
Spencer Boyd of the Warriors, who shared team scoring honors with Nick Foschia with nine points, said the team showed it can win ugly games.
We do not want to be the weaker team. We always play Akron City teams tough and neither team was backing down, Boyd said. It shows that we were able to finish, just like we did in the fourth quarter of the CVCA game.
Garfield coach Harold Ickes said the Rams defensively did what they wanted.
We worked hard on fronting the post after watching them play Ellet Tuesday night. I could not ask for more from them defensively. We just needed to knock down a few shots, Ickes said. Shot selection has been the issue with us all season.
Garfields Jorden Boykin tied the score at 45-45 with 2:20 left in the fourth quarter with a jumper, but the Warriors went on a 9-4 run to finish the game, seven of those points coming at the foul line, where Walsh had struggled.
The Warriors regained the lead, 47-45, and kept it for good on a turnaround shot from the left baseline by Foschia with 1:23 remaining.
After Deon Lewis split two free throws, Trent Donald made 4-of-6 foul shots and Henry Trimpe made two with 15 seconds left to finally put the game out of reach.
The Warriors were just 16-of-36 from the foul line and Garfield was 14-of-26.
We can control that. We are not making excuses we need to make free throws to win a game like this, Walsh coach John Norris said. It was a great team win and we had foul trouble and had to go to our bench early.
The bench was depleted because K.C. Meyer was attending his sisters wedding and Kevin Keller twisted his ankle at practice.
The Warriors (6-1) simply went deeper into the bench and had nine different players score with no one in double figures. Noah Kaim and Carmen Sabella played quality minutes for the Warriors.
The Rams recovered from a 24-19 halftime deficit to take a 37-35 lead after three quarters with their defense frustrating the Warriors.
Even when we were down, we did not panic and stayed strong, Boyd said. We like to play tough at the end. There is no one word to describe us.
Boykin led the Rams with 19 points and Dezmond Love had eight points, Brelyn Brewton six, and Darius Hoisten and Deon Lewis each had five.
Ickes said his teams record is not indicative its talent.
Anybody who looks at a 2-6 record probably thinks we are not very good, but we showed we are not that bad tonight, Ickes said.
Read the high school blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/varsity_letters/. Also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ABJ_Varsity. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Cuyahoga Falls 55, Hudson 54: Black Tigers edge Explorers
HUDSON: Cuyahoga Falls junior guard Devin Speicher faced a moment to win a game Tuesday night. He made it happen.
Speicher made a running layup to his right with 2.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to lift visiting Cuyahoga Falls to a 55-54 victory over Hudson at Ray Buck Hyser Gymnasium.
I saw an open lane and I drove to the basket, Speicher said. I was pretty confident the shot would go in and it did.
Speicher finished with 12 points for the Black Tigers (2-2, 1-1 Northeast Ohio Conference River Division).
I figured if I could get Devin in open space and get him a ball screen he could make something happen, Falls coach Rob Slone said. The screen was going to come from the left, but he read the play and had an opening to his right. I knew they would have to make a choice and he could either take it to the rack or pass it to a teammate and get a wide-open 3.
He is a very instinctive kid. It is a lot easier to coach when you have one of those running your point.
Hudson junior forward Alex Mushock made two free throws with 21.8 seconds to go to give the Explorers (3-3, 0-2) a 54-53 lead prior to Speichers shot.
Speicher made a great play to win the game, Hudson coach Jeff Brink said. That was a big-time take.
Falls senior guard Cory Asbury scored a game-high 18 points, including three 3-pointers.
It is huge to win this game, Asbury said. We should have had a couple more wins. We work hard and I am happy with my team.
Hudson junior guards Alex Albright and Zack Brandy both reached double figures with 17 points and 16 points, respectively.
It is hard to come to Hudson and win ever, Slone said. Those kids are scrappy, they come after you and play very hard.
Hudson trailed 16-3 with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter, but put together a 22-5 run to lead 25-21 with under two minutes to go in the second quarter.
The Explorers held a 27-25 advantage at halftime, but the Black Tigers rallied and led 41-38 after three quarters.
You have to give Falls credit, they came out and blew our doors off in the first quarter, Brink said. We came back and played better in the second quarter and led at halftime, but we missed too many shots and free throws in this game.
Hudson made 17-of-63 field goals and 12-of-21 free throws. The Explorers converted 8-of-34 3-pointers.
Mushock finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
Falls made 20-of-40 field goals and 7-of-12 free throws. The Black Tigers made 8-of-18 3-pointers.
Sophomore guards Joshua Ricker and Jay Slone combined for 13 points, and Ricker grabbed nine rebounds.
This was two evenly matched teams, Brink said. Neither team shot well. I thought Albright provided a huge spark off the bench for us. That got us back into the game. And that was something we needed with [junior forward] Ben Gedeon in foul trouble. That hurt us. Zack is also a key player for us. He has been clutch all year.
Read the high school blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/varsity_letters/. Also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ABJ_Varsity. Follow ABJ sports on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
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