The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Eagles defeat Olmsted Falls, 42-39
Senior forward makes big shot on a busted play
Avon wanted to play big Saturday, but the Eagles didn’t mean for their 6-foot-2 post player Amari Davidson to knock down a game-winning 3.
Davidson, who led Avon in scoring with 13 points, received a pass at the top of the key made the shot with seconds left in regulation, as the Eagles (4-1,3-1) topped Olmsted Falls (4-1, 3-1) at home, 42-39.
“I’m not going to lie, I had no idea where I was,” said Davidson. “I was supposed to screen for Karlee Clements, and they double-teamed so I backed out, and she passed it and I just shot the ball.”
Avon, which is a versatile team offensively, typically runs a few 3-point plays for Davidson. But this play was not intended for their senior forward.
“That ended up being the shot we took, and it went in, but we laughed,” Avon coach Meghan Larrick said. “Our JV coach actually drew up a play and he had one up his sleeve, so we’re going to say that’s exactly how we drew it up. We were looking for a wide-open 3 for Amari. No, really I think our girls just saw what was open and they were able to adjust what the play was, and I think they executed well and
we got the win.”
Both teams in the first half struggled to score, as Olmsted Falls didn’t record their first bucket until 3:41 in the first quarter, while Avon managed to score only eight points in that same quarter.
“For some reason today, and maybe this is probably my fault, but I don’t know if we were really prepared to play a basketball game,” Olmsted Falls coach Jordan Eaton said. “We went through everything like normal, but for some reason today we just came out flat and maybe I’ll take the blame for that. We have to get them a little more motivated to play right away because after I called a timeout, they were motivated to play. But you also have to credit Avon because the played really well and they definitely earned it.”
Avon, which came out in the first quarter with a quick eight points in the paint, ended up being shut down the rest of that quarter after Eaton called a timeout and got his players regrouped.
“We spent so much time working on limiting them from scoring down low,” said Eaton. “I just think early on our kids got a little game excited and we weren’t quite focused on our defensive responsibilities to keep that ball out of the paint like we wanted them to and we called a timeout and we didn’t really say anything or change anything, but we just said, ‘You need to play the defense and we’ll play better.’ And we had a lot of chances to win that basketball game, but we just missed free throws and turnovers that first half that killed us.”
Both teams struggled to hold on to the ball, as Avon turned it over 20 times compared to Olmsted Falls’ 17. the Bulldogs struggled from the field, shooting just 6-of-17, while scoring just eight points in the fourth quarter.
“I was proud of the way we didn’t quit,” Eaton said. “It would have been easy to get down 6-0 and feel sorry for ourselves and say, ‘Oh, well. Looks like today’s not our day,’ but nobody said that, and nobody did that. We worked and got a lot of defensive stops in a physical game and I was impressed because they really did give us some issues with their size. but I thought we battled them really well and it’s funny that their size didn’t really hurt us until the end when their biggest kid made a 3.”