The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Tough games help prep for tournament
Teams use difficult contests as postseason preparation
With fewer than two weeks left in the regular season, teams around the area are powering through the final games on the schedule before preparing for a postseason that features plenty of tough early-round matchups.
It’s not a new or uncommon strategy by any stretch, but many teams have scheduled on paper what would be their more difficult games for the latter part of the season to truly see where they stack up when it counts.
Likely no team around is more familiar with the concept this year than Elyria Catholic, which always schedules a brutal regular season that gets seemingly tougher game after game.
The Panthers took on the ultimate challenge any team can face on the west side when they traveled to Lorain, Division I’s fifth-ranked team, to face the Titans in their home gym.
It was a tournament atmosphere with state-level competition the likes of which Elyria Catholic has not seen all season, and the Panthers were dealt an 89-71 loss that was no doubt frustrating on the court, but an overall beneficial experience according to Coach Rob Palmer.
“We expected the game to be tough for us and maybe give us an opportunity to play a different style, a faster style hopefully for the likes of Warrensville Heights or Lutheran East down the road,” Palmer said.
It’s a worthwhile concept considering both teams Palmer noted play in the D-III Garfield Heights district and both those teams face not only Lorain twice a year, but Cleveland Heights and Maple Heights, too — two tough Lake Erie League teams that are never an easy out — among others.
Lorain is just one of a handful of D-I teams on the Panthers’ schedule. In fact, Elyria Catholic has faced only one other D-III team while playing 11 D-I and 10 D-II teams as it prepares for a district which features a state championship team from two seasons ago in Lutheran East.
The Panthers aren’t the only team preparing for the postseason with a tough late-season schedule.
Vermilion earned the third seed in a D-II Mansfield District in which five teams boast three or fewer losses, and put Clearview on the schedule for Feb. 19, breaking up the monotony of its Sandusky Bay Conference slate and testing its skill against one of the better D-II teams around before awaiting its sectional final opponent.
Clearview’s got the same idea, too.
The Clippers have faced Elyria, Lorain and Sandusky all within a month, and despite losing each of those games, is prepared to use the lessons taken from those setbacks to hopefully advance to the district round for the first time since the 2015-16 season.
No easy feat in a D-II North Ridgeville District stacked with talent including Cleveland Central Catholic, Holy Name, Bay and Fairview all in the top four.
“It’s amazing the difference,” Szalay said of playing a D-I team. “The size and the speed, it’s whole different world.
“(But) get your kids ready and play them. That’s how we feel about it.”
From D-II to D-IV, the mission is the same, and knowing they’d likely be playing in one of the toughest districts around, both Columbia and Open Door have faced stiff nonconference competition in the last few weeks.
Columbia fell to Chippewa before beating fellow Norton District team Rittman, 51-50, while Open Door has played teams across all divisions including a 20-point win over D-I Massillon Washington in late-January.
It’s the only way to truly prepare for that elusive state championship every team in Ohio is chasing this time of year.
Open Door senior Jared Bublinec said: “We have to be really tough mentally and physically and just push that all the way through tournament time.”