Bulldogs bring the energy, shock Eagles

Avon looked to capitalize on the momentum of its big win over Berea-Midpark rolling into rival Olmsted Falls on Jan. 24.

But the Bulldogs had other ideas.

Playing its most complete game all season, Olmsted Falls brought the energy early and toppled the Eagles, 56-38, to send a message to the Southwestern Conference.

Olmsted Falls (11-3, 9-3) coach Jordan Eaton said his players carried their own momentum from last game and amped it up for the conference rivalry game.

“Our kids have bought into being extremely intense and tenacious from the tip for the past few weeks,” Eaton said. “The intensity that they have decided to come to the game with has been incredible and I’m really proud of them for that, because it’s not easy to do that every single game. We just played on Monday night and they came out with that same intensity. So big time props to them.”

Leading the charge for the Bulldogs was junior Clare Kelly and senior Sarah Balfour. Combining for 36 points, Balfour said they were just ready to come out and play.

“We knew it was going to be a good game right from the tip. Our coach said if we were defensively dominant, it will lead to offense, which

is what we did,” Balfour said. “We held them to a lot of stops. We knew the scouting report and we made use of their weaknesses and it showed on the court.”

While the Olmsted Falls defense played a huge factor in the win, arguably the biggest reason the Bulldogs won was on the offensive glass, where the team hauled in 16 boards that created a lot of offense.

“We really grind in practice and we do it really well. We rebound well against each other and we really fight everyday in practice and sometimes we just don’t see it quite translate or brought it to game floor,” Eaton said. “For that to happen against a team that is as big and good at rebounding as Avon is was awesome and our kids just buy into that. We’re not the biggest team in the world, but we know if we fight like heck, we’ve got a real good chance to rebound.”

Keeping to the defensive game plan, Eaton said he was most happy with his team’s job at keeping Eagles (10-6, 8-4) players in front of them and forcing low percentage shots.

“We just told them in the locker room that they did such an unbelievable job of sticking to the defensive scouting report,” Eaton said. “Sometimes it can be difficult when the game’s going a million miles an hour to forget what a player is good at and what they’re not so good at and force them to do what they are not so good at. But they did that tonight with each and every one of their individual players to the point where it got us excited for offense.”

Following the loss, Avon coach Meghan Larrick said that this loss was a wakeup call right in time for the postseason. Despite earning a major victory against the Titans, the Eagles need to keep the course and play for the ultimate goal.

“We talked about that. We can’t let the Berea-Midpark win define our season,” Larrick said. “Berea is a great basketball team, but so is a lot of other basketball teams in this conference, so there’s no night that’s an easy night. We have to come out with our ‘A’ game every single night and we have to come out with the energy.”