Harvey runs past West G for CVC victory

Visiting Harvey’s aim was apparent in a CVC Chagrin opener at West Geauga on Dec. 8.

Play at a fast pace, force turnovers, and deny the Wolverines’ top scorers.

The Red Raiders checked all those boxes: They ran up and down the floor, forced 20 turnovers, and held West G standouts Peyton Bissler (two) and Josh Irwin (eight) to a combined 10 points to earn a 67-43 victory.

Whenever Bissler or Irwin touched the ball, Harvey (3-0, 1-0 CVC Chagrin) made sure to have two defenders right on them. Then the Red Raiders jumped passing lanes, leading to 11 team steals, most of which resulted in points at the other end.

“(Irwin) has a height advantage on all of us, so whenever he got the ball in the paint we wanted to double-down on him,” Harvey senior Daylin Davis said, adding that running and pushing the ball up the floor was a focus.

The Red Raiders forced eight turnovers in the first quarter, and took a 16-11 first quarter lead behind eight points from smooth, heady freshman Roderick Coffee III, who finished with 11 points and four steals.

Harvey extended its lead to 36-22 going into halftime, as its half-court pressure increasingly took a toll on the Wolverines. The Red Raiders knocked down four 3s in the frame, two by junior Ethan Hach.

“(Irwin) and (Bissler) are some pretty darn good players, and I think even No. 10 (Marco Formichelli) is a good shooter,” Harvey coach Dave Wojciechowski said of the Wolverines. “I’m really proud of how our focus and attention to detail was all week. I thought we played team defense, team offense, and I’m really proud of our effort and how we looked today.”

The Red Raiders’ efforts continued to pay off in the third quarter, as Davis scored seven of his gamehigh 14 points, and Harvey held West G to six points for the stanza in pushing its lead to 50-28 going into the fourth.

West Geauga (1-3, 0-1) tried valiantly to keep up with Harvey’s pace, and found occasional success with ball movement and finding players open underneath the basket. But the Wolverines’ inability to get Bissler and the 6-foot-6 sophomore Irwin untracked, along with their propensity to turn the ball over, hampered their efforts.

“They did a good job of starting things off double-teaming Peyton,” West Geauga coach Jeff Javorek said. “They got the ball out of his hands, then did a good job double-teaming Josh and frustrating him. They couldn’t get any good looks, and that’s how teams have to play us. They have to play us helter-skelter, double-team our two best players, and we need (other) guys to step up.”

Twelve players scored for West Geauga, but Formichelli, with 10 points, was the only Wolverine in double figures. Irwin, who had been averaging a double-double coming in, had eight rebounds to match his eight points.

David Dobbins (11 points), and Bishop Thomas (10 points), in addition to Davis and Coffee’s output, gave Harvey four doubledigit scorers. The growth of the Red Raiders’ core players, a few of which are three-year starting juniors, impressed Wojciechowski.

“I like our length, I like our quickness, and above all our guys are committed to each other and the way we want to play,” said Wojciechowski, who also offered high praise for the freshman Coffee, comparing him to former VASJ great David Lighty. “I think the growth (of the core) has been dramatic. You think of them as puppies two years ago, and they’ve grown into what I would call ‘big dogs’. We’ve had a little success, now we’ve got to learn how to keep it going.”