Eagles wear down N. Ridgeville, break away in second half

Host Avon opened the third quarter March 3 with a 12-0 run that broke open a close game and eventually helped the Eagles take a 62-47 victory in a Division II boys basketball district semifinal.

Avon, 17-6, will play Medina Highland at 3:30 Saturday at Wooster High School in search of their second consecutive district championship. Highland, which has developed a playoff football rivalry with the Eagles through the years, defeated Stow in their district semifinal, 66-50.

While most in Avon’s nearly-packed gym will focus on the first 3 minutes of the second half, when the Eagles turned a 24-24 halftime score into a 36-24 mountain for the visitors to climb, Avon coach Mike Fitch saw it differently. The Rangers, who end the season at 13-10, came out of the gates like gangbusters, forcing five turnovers in the first 4 minutes of the game while building leads of 9-2 and 11-3. But Fitch was okay with what he was seeing.

“Honestly, I look back at the first quarter,” he said. “They came out so hard, so aggressive, and we knew we were deeper on the bench. So, I think in the third quarter our legs were under us a little bit. We had fresh legs.”

Clearly, North Ridgeville did not. Coach Ben Chase has been playing a very short rotation, and when two important rotational players picked up their third foul in the second quarter and had to be removed, things got even shorter.

“We’ve played a short rotation the last few games, and the guys were tired,” Chase said. “The foul trouble in the second quarter really hurt. We had (key players) on the bench pretty much that whole second quarter.”

That allowed the Eagles to battle back to a 24-24 tie at halftime, setting up the third period fireworks.

Brooks Good had just one point in the first half, but the junior forward took control of things coming out of the locker room. He hit a driving layup and free throw for a traditional three-point play and then added a short jumper in the lane. Next came a putback after an offensive rebound, followed by a 3-pointer from the right wing. Dean Abdul had a breakaway layup after a steal within all those Good baskets, and Avon suddenly had a 36-24 lead.

“We knew we needed someone to pick it up,” Good said. “You know, 24 points at half is really low for this team, and I felt good about my shot coming in. They weren’t falling in the first half, but I knew I had to keep shooting, and they were going to fall eventually. I always struggle coming out early, and then once I kind of get into my zone and play my brand of basketball, I think I can do whatever I want with the ball.”

It’s an act that Fitch has seen throughout the season.

“Brooks Good does what Brooks Good does,” he said. “He follows up, makes those little bunnies. You know, when you get a stop and then he gets a putback or he gets a little bunny, those are daggers to guys. That’s what Brooks has done all year for us.”

It certainly was a dagger to North Ridgeville. By the time the third quarter was over, the Eagles were comfortably in front, 45-31.

“I thought in the first two minutes (of the third quarter) we got great looks,” Chase said. “We just missed them and that led to some tough transition defense where they got layups and some offensive rebounds. It was 21-7 in the third quarter. Any quarter like that in the playoffs is going to be a killer. That was kind of a knockout punch, and we were crawling back from there.”

According to Chase, shooting woes have plagued the Rangers all season. In this game, when they were building their early leads, they could have been up by a lot more had they just connected on a couple 3-point attempts. Instead, despite the fact that most of them were open looks, they missed their first five from beyond the arc and didn’t hit one until the middle of the second quarter.

“It was just a dreadful shooting night for us,” Chase said. “I don’t want to say that’s par for the course, but, man, we have not shot the ball. It’s not what I expected this year. We were a 31 percent team from three this year, and that’s not going to win games. I thought we were more like a 36 to 39 percent team. That’s going to be a big part of the offseason. We have seven guys coming back next year that are going to bring a lot of experience, and we’ve got to shoot the three at a higher level.”

North Ridgeville was led by junior guard Luke Rowe with 12 points. He was backed by Duke Baker with 11, Cole Miller with nine—all in the first quarter—and Jaxon Compton had eight off the bench.

Rowe scored nine of his points in the first half, as his defensive effort as well as the effort of battling Avon’s tight defense appeared to wear him down.

“We have two guys who could guard their best player,” Fitch said. “You put Dean Abdul and Caden Clapham in there, and it’s two against one. I think Luke got a little tired because we were running two guys at him.”

Avon countered with very balanced scoring led by Joey Ziegler with 14. He was followed by Gavyn Kittelberger with 13, Good with 11 and seven each from Holden Krugman and Trevor Sykora.

“That’s how we’ve been all year,” Fitch said. “Brooks has had 20, Gavyn has had 20, Joey’s had 20. Preston Johnson had 18 and he didn’t even play tonight. That’s how we run. That’s how we play basketball. We don’t have a 20-point scorer. Joey’s obviously our leading scorer, but that’s not how we play. We run a lot of open stuff for guys to make decisions and make good shots, and everyone’s available to shoot.”