Avon Lake advances to sectional final

The Shoremen overcome Amherst’s strategy to slow the pace of the game and win, 63-35. Avon Lake will play at Midview at 7 p.m., March 3.

Avon Lake let Amherst hang around for two and a half quarters before overwhelming the Comets in the fourth quarter on the way to a 63-35 win Feb. 28 in a Division I sectional semifinal.

No. 5 Avon Lake advances to face fourth-seeded Midview on the road March 3 in a sectional final.

The Shoremen were forced out of system in the first half, thanks to Amherst’s purposeful slow pace and zone defense and headed to the locker room at halftime frustrated by an eight-point second quarter.

But after the Comets got within nine at the 4:40 mark of the third, Avon Lake went on two big runs to put the game out of reach, outscoring Amherst, 15-4, in the final six minutes of regulation.

“They always do that zone. It gets to us, but we

worked hard in practice. Play Midview and they do a zone, so we were ready for this,” Avon Lake sophomore Tanner Russell said. “We started slow. We tend to do that a lot, but when we go in at halftime we fix stuff and we come out fast, move the ball and get our shots.”

Russell scored 10 of his 17 points in the third quarter and 12 overall in the second half to power Avon Lake (13-10) to a doubledigit lead. Senior Jordan Ball added a game-high 20 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter on 5-of-5 shooting.

The key for Avon Lake was taking Amherst out of its slow, methodical pace. The Shoremen nabbed 14 steals and had 16 points off 15 Amherst turnovers as Ball and Russell consistently moved the ball quickly down the floor.

Not to mention, Avon Lake outrebounded Amherst, 38-23, including 19 offensive rebounds, and tallied nine assists as the 12thseeded Comets were simply overpowered in what would be their final game of the season.

“We gave up too many offensive rebounds and we missed a lot of easy shots,” Amherst coach Pat Bray said. “That’s where we lost control. We talked about how we had to dominate the boards and we didn’t.

“We can’t play an upand-down game and try to shoot it out with someone. We have to slow it down, grind it out and that’s how we put ourself in a position to win games. That’s what we did the first half, but we just couldn’t make shots the second half. We let (Avon Lake) get going and that wasn’t good for us.”

Kyle Ferguson led Amherst (4-19) with six points and Alec Dimacchia and Troy Toth each added five.