The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Geneva shows growth in win over Perry
Geneva looked like it may unravel in the fourth quarter at Perry on Jan. 26.
Three technical fouls over a 90-second span helped the Pirates trim the Eagles’ 19-point lead to nine. Junior Nick Stoltz ensured Perry drew no closer, and Geneva secured a 5641 win on the Pirates’ home floor.
Stoltz stole a Perry inbounds pass and finished a layup, then hit a dagger 3-pointer from the corner to push the Geneva lead back to 15.
He led all scorers with 17 points as the Eagles avenged a 60-57 loss to Perry on Jan. 2.
“We were the ones that were aggressive,” Stoltz said. “We took it to them instead of letting them play their game.”
Dakota Harvey added 11 points for the Eagles. Freshman Jaylen Anderson led the Pirates with 12.
The game was one Coach Shane Clugh could’ve seen a previous Geneva team losing, whether a year ago or even weeks prior. After the Eagles appeared to turn a corner in their 72-62 win against Chagrin Falls on Jan. 20, they followed with a 32-point loss to Beachwood.
“We’re still growing,” Clugh said. “This is a work in progress. We’ve got a bunch of young kids that are finally learning to step up, understand what it means to play team basketball, get it done and what it takes to win at this level.”
Geneva led through most of the first quarter before Anderson’s 3-pointer knotted the score at 10-10. The Eagles limited the Pirates to seven points in the second quarter and opened a 24-17 halftime lead after layups from Harvey and Grant Mihalick.
Perry cut its deficit to five out of halftime but Geneva pushed its lead back to double digits. Blake Peet’s 3-pointer in the final seconds put the Eagles ahead, 40-24, headed into the fourth.
Seth Goodrick opened the fourth with another 3 for a 19-point Geneva edge.
The Eagles’ patience on the offensive end wore Perry’s defense out with sustained possessions. Geneva ran through multiple rotations of its Princeton motion offense, which afforded the Eagles opportunities to capitalize on the Pirates’ lapses.
At the other end, Perry’s offense was unable to establish rhythm.
“Teams now don’t like to play defense,” Stoltz said. “You don’t want to sit there and play defense in the halfcourt for that long, so it makes them take risks. When they take risks, you capitalize. It makes it easy on us.”
Jake Reid’s layup and Matt Cool’s and-one putback whittled the Pirates’ deficit to 11.
The Pirates shot six free throws as a result of Geneva’s three technical fouls. Perry made only three and scored on just one of its three possessions granted after each set of free throws.
Perry coach Al Iacofano thought the game was decided in the game’s 5050 areas — loose balls, rebounding and hustle players. Although the Pirates had opportunities to narrow their deficit, Geneva’s grit helped the Eagles build an insurmountable advantage.
“There was a couple windows,” Iacofano said. “Again, when you get outworked in a lot of those other areas, it’s just not going to happen.”