Lorain visits, overwhelms Strongsville

Grant nets 1,000th point

Lorain took its fast-paced act on the road as it smothered Strongsville in the Mustangs’ home opener, 92-67, in a nonconference matchup Dec. 11.

The Titans (3-0) applied fullcourt pressure from start to finish, overwhelming and flustering the Greater Cleveland Conference’s Mustangs (0-4) into a flurry of turnovers in each quarter. At halftime, Strongsville had LORAIN 92, STRONGSVILLE 67

19 points and 20 turnovers.

For Coach John Rositano and the Titans, the gameplan was simple: Suffocate them.

“Our thing is pressure defense, getting after the basketball and getting after shots and causing turnovers,” Rositano said. “If we aren’t doing that defensively, we have a tendency to struggle offensively. Once we got it cranked up there in the second quarter, you know, we got the game in our favor in terms of the speed of the game. It was pretty much over.”

Only leading 13-9 at the end of the first quarter, Lorain’s offense started off sluggish as it shot 4-of13 from the field, but the abundance of chances off turnovers helped it break out of its funk.

As they continued to crank up the pressure, the Titans poured it on in the second quarter, blitzing the Mustangs for another 10 turnovers and outscoring Strongsville, 34-10.

Lorain took a 47-19 lead into halftime.

Titans senior Taevon PierreLouis established his dominance on the inside, overwhelming the Strongsville defense with his quickness and 6-foot-6 frame. The big man notched 12 points in the second quarter alone, helping fuel blowout.

“We got on a sluggish start, but we just picked up and started playing,” Pierre-Louis said. “At first, we were playing to the level of our competition, and then we just started playing and proving that they can’t really play with us.”

With the game comfortably in control at 67-31, Titans senior Devon Grant notched his 1,000th point at 2:05 left in the third quarter when he stole the ball and knocked in a nifty fadeaway jumper.

Immediately after the career achievement, Rositano called timeout as fans from both sides of the gymnasium clapped and applauded the feat.

Grant had no idea about his milestone.

“Actually I didn’t … I was excited,” Grant said. “It was one of my goals since being a freshman in high school. I’m glad I accomplished one of those (goals).”

Rositano was not surprised Grant wasn’t focused on an individual accomplishment.

“He is not a point guy. He is a team guy,” Rositano said. “He is a winning guy, and he got the 1,000th point, which is a credit to him. He grinds out game and grinds out practice, and puts the time in the gym. Those things don’t happen by accident.”

Lorain junior Deonte Benejan led the Titans with 24 points, including six 3-pointers.

Strongsville held its own in the third quarter, but were still outscored, 22-18, by the speedy Titans.

Jalen Garner led the Mustangs with 16 points, while Drew Liposki and Saaid Ahmad chipped in 11 and 10, respectively.

Just a bucket into the fourth quarter, Rositano decided to empty the bench with Lorain at full control, 71-46. The Mustangs did their best to salvage the night with a gutsy

fourth quarter effort as they carved the lead down to 20 points at 85-65 with 1:43 left.

With his team likely to overwhelm a fair number of opponents this season, playing with a large lead is something Rositano wants to focus on going forward.

“What you want to do is try to continue to play the right way,” Rositano said. “Sometimes it is difficult when you get that big lead. I don’t think we did a very good job of playing with a big lead tonight. But again, these are things we are going to learn as we go, and

we are going to keep getting better. We have really good players and really good kids.”

Despite forcing 29 turnovers on the night, Rositano also wants his defense to be even better.

“Well, honestly right now, we are not very sound defensively,” he said. “We have a long way to go to get better. We’re gambling too much and reaching too much. We have got to shore some things up on the defensive end. When we play the elite teams, those things are going to show up and they are going to make you pay for it.”