Despite slow start, Eagles earn district final berth with victory over Lakewood

If Avon coach Adam Castrilla never has to take his girls basketball team back to Lakewood’s gym, it still will be too soon.

Twice the Eagles have played there this season, and each time they found themselves on the short end of a 19-5 score. On Jan. 12, Avon managed to get back to within two points in the third quarter before eventually taking a 59-50 loss.

But on Feb. 25, this time in a Division II district semifinal, the Eagles battled their way back and then took control of the game by getting Lakewood’s two best players into foul trouble, eventually taking a 51-33 victory by virtue of outscoring the Rangers, 48-16, in the final three quarters.

With the upset victory (Avon was seeded 19th and Lakewood was No. 11), the Eagles earn the right to play in a district final at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at Medina. They will face eighth-seeded Massillon Washington, which defeated Akron Firestone in their district semifinal, 71-25.

When asked to explain the two awful starts his team has produced in the games at Lakewood, Castrilla said, “I don’t know. I’m just glad we’re not coming back here anytime soon.”

Senior Abby Owens, who sparked the comeback by scoring 11 of her game-high 16 points in critical third quarter, also was baffled by her team’s slow starts at Lakewood.

“I don’t know why we start slow, but it’s just about next play and just continuing through,” she said. “If we had been down on ourselves when we were down 19-5, we wouldn’t have been able to come back. It’s what we’ve talked about all season. Just get through the hard adversity.”

After committing 11 turnovers in the first quarter, the Eagles were down, 17-3, after the opening 8 minutes. It seemed nothing would go right for the visitors. Eventually they started aggressively attacking the basket, but at first that didn’t work either, as Avon only made 1 of 6 from the line to start the game.

“We were getting to the line, and we were getting pretty good shots, but we weren’t making anything,” Castrilla said. “One of the things at halftime was, ‘Girls, there’s a pendulum, and the pendulum is going to swing back. We’re going to start making those shots so just keep plugging away.’ Keep playing the next play is what we’ve been saying all year, and it was nothing but that in the second half.”

In the team’s huddle after the first quarter, Castrilla told his troops not to try to make up the deficit all at once but instead to focus on cutting it in half. The Eagles did just that, outscoring the hosts, 12-5, in the second quarter to reach a halftime score of 22-15 in favor of Lakewood. Alaina Pagan led the way for Avon in the period, scoring seven of her 12 points to help chip away at the lead.

While the strategy of attacking the basket didn’t pay immediate dividends, eventually it became the most important aspect of the game. Lakewood has two very good players in lightning-quick guard Charleigh Doxley and post player Ari Hueter.

On this night, the two proved to be foul prone and had to spend long stretches on the bench. Doxley picked up her second foul in the final minute of the first quarter and got her third just 8 seconds into the second. She hit a layup at the 7:12 mark of the second period to reach 12 points, but she wouldn’t score for the remainder of the game because she was mostly on the bench. Her fourth foul came late in the third period, and she fouled out just 23 seconds into the fourth.

“Obviously, we got their guard in foul trouble early,” Castrilla said. “That really helped us and allowed us to continue to press and force other kids to have to step up and handle the ball probably a little bit more than what they’re used to.”

Not only was Doxley the primary ballhandler for the Rangers, she was their only player who appeared comfortable with the ball. With her on the bench, Lakewood’s offense suffered greatly. Any time you end a game with more turnovers (36) than points (33), you know you’re in trouble.

But the Eagles still trailed by seven at halftime, 22-15. Enter Owens, who lit things up in the third quarter. After Pagan made a layup to start the period, Owens hit three consecutive 3-pointers, with the third giving Avon its first lead of the game, 26-24. She looked to have a fourth from beyond the arc later in the period, but her foot was on the line. Owens only scored three points in the first half, but finished with 16.

“I couldn’t do anything in the first half,” she said. “At halftime it was time to settle myself back down and push through and get those shots off. After the first half, my confidence was a little down, but at halftime I was able to calm myself down.”

By the end of the third quarter, Avon’s lead was up to 31-25. The Eagles then opened the fourth period with a quick 10-1 run to make it 41-26 and, in effect, put the game away.

So, now it’s on to the district finals against Massillon Washington. The Tigers are 14-7 after their district semifinal victory including victories over Brush and Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.

“Like I told the girls, we’ve earned the right to keep playing,” Castrilla said. “We know we have our work cut out for us, but we’re excited to get back to work. We can enjoy this one tonight, but it’s a quick turnaround. We’re going to go from having 12 or 13 days to prepare for Lakewood to now only having two.”