The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Still the top dog
Lorain uses tough defense to beat rival Elyria at holiday tourney
While it may not have been that enjoyable to watch, it was a thing of beauty to Lorain.
The host TItans’ defense was scrappy, handsy and physical in holding Elyria to a combined five points between the first and third quarters to move onto the championship game against Sandusky in the 2017 Lorain County Holiday
Classic with a 50-39 win Dec. 29.
“This team is built differently than in years’ past,” Lorain coach John Rositano said. “We don’t have the horses in terms of size, athleticism and depth. But what these guys do do — even though we are young and inexperienced — they play hard.
“We’re going to win this year with defending the ball hard, rebound the basketball and play smart offensively. For the most part, I thought we did a good job of that.”
The physical part of the game Lorain (5-1) played was evident from the start, forcing turnovers early on. The Titans forced six
turnovers in the first quarter and held the Pioneers (5-2) scoreless in the first quarter. Lorain, which held an 11-0 lead, got some early offense from Taevon Pierre-Louis. The 6-foot-6 junior scored seven of his 12 points in the first quarter.
Undaunted by the first quarter struggles, Elyria responded and held Lorain to seven points in the quarter and trimmed the deficit down to 18-15 at the half with Deviian Williams (team-high 19 points) exploding for 10 points in the quarter, which included a pair of 3s.
The quarter was the type of game Elyria coach Brett Larrick hoped his team could continue in the third quarter.
But Lorain had different ideas, especially junior guard Devone Grant.
The 6-0 lanky guard scored six of Lorain’s eight points to start the third quarter to give the Titans a 27-15 lead. Two of the baskets came in transition as Lorain beat the Pioneers’ defense up the floor.
Grant, who had a gamehigh 21 points, knew he just had to keep playing and eventually the points were going to come.
“I saw my shot wasn’t falling (in the first half),” Grant said. “So I felt that I needed to attack harder and make easy buckets in transition.
“Coach tells us defense leads to offense, so just keep that in mind. (The win) is kind of revenge from last year.”
As Lorain held a 36-20 lead at the end of the third quarter, they also held a sizeable advantage at the free-throw line.
Lorain had 11 attempts, while Elyria had just one.
Grant added nine more points in the fourth quarter to keep Elyria at arm’s length en route to the win.
“It was just a matter of time a kid (Grant) that talented is going to get unleashed a little bit,” Rositano said. “He got going, a little bit in the second half. Once he gets going; we’re way better offensively.”
Though the loss was tough, Larrick knows his team can learn a lot from it.
“The biggest thing is we kind of got away from what we do,” he said. “We got rushed on offense and committed too many turnovers (18 to Lorain’s 10).
“Games like this (making sure to) mentally (and) physically staying into it and adjusting to the physicality and being even stronger to do what we want to do.”