Dec 11, 2024
Chagrin Falls and West Geauga were separated by one point at the end of the first quarter Dec. 11. Then the Tigers got things going. With a 24-point second quarter, the Tigers took a lead that rarely went below double digits. The Wolverines made it interesting late with a 7-2 mini-run but couldn’t make it into a full comeback. The Tigers took the win, 54-48, and both teams are 2-1 on the season. One of the difference-makers for Chagrin Falls was the speed of the game. Normally the Tigers are slow-paced, but they were able to run with West Geauga. After just a 9-8 start to the game, Coach Dave Bargar said his team needed a little vote of confidence to push forward. “We got going and were feeling good about ourselves,” Bargar said. “We got lucky on a few buckets, including 3s. But we started to get the ball in transition and getting stops. Which is the important thing. The first quarter you could tell both teams were feeling it out but once the second started, we were able to find that confidence.” Ryan Curtiss benefited from the speed of the game. He had 13 first-half points and finished with a team-high 18 while working in the paint. Chagrin Falls connected on seven 3s. Curtiss made one of them — a bank shot from near the corner late in the second quarter. But he knew while his teammates worked from deep, he could establish the paint control during the run. “It comes from confidence and we harp on having a hard warm-up and a lot of energy,” Curtiss said. “That gets us ready to play. It helps us get in a rhythm, especially from deep. At practice, we shoot a lot, and every day there’s shooting and transition drills.” Chagrin Falls won the second quarter, 24-10, and had a 33-18 halftime lead. But the Tigers knew they couldn’t be comfortable. West Geauga battled back through the third and narrowed its deficit to eight. But Chagrin Falls got the tempo back in its favor, this time through Jacob Kay. He had 13 points, including six in the second half, and a pair of 3s. “We find that when we push the ball we have success,” Curtiss said. “We work on that a lot as well. Always pushing the ball down the court. But also we work on transition points on defense. Every half time we talk about the transition points and how we get back. They had too many in the first and we limited that in the second. That was the difference.” Evan Castelluccio finished with eight points and Brad Russell had six. Spencer Kaas didn’t finish with a point but had six rebounds and three assists. Curtiss had six rebounds, Kay had four and four assists. Off the bench,  Robby Mignogna had a block and Ozzy DiFranco had three big rebounds late. Bargar said the Tigers’ unselfish style of play will help as the season continues. “There are times where we have to beg him (Kaas) to shoot,” Bargar said. “When he did, he had 25 in a tournament game. Our program is based on unselfishness. We do a really good job of sharing it. And we’re starting to get everyone back, injuries have been a big thing again for us. But we’re getting to the point where we can have an 8-9 player rotation.” West Geauga made a game of it late, as Colin Whiting had two steals and scores and Landon Lear hit a pair of late 3s. But the second-quarter lull was too much to overcome. Coach Micah Young said Lear can take over a game — he had a game-high 31 — everyone else needs to be confident and slow down in their decision-making. “We were 4 of 25 from 3 and 20-56 overall,” Young said. “They were hitting shots and we were sped up on offense and not hitting shots. It was really that simple. We let them score and weren’t hitting shots to speed us up. We’re not going to win many games like that. We were over-dribbling. When we don’t move the ball, we have guys that can do a lot that aren’t able to do what they can.” Whiting also finished in double figures with 10 and both he and Lear were two rebounds short of a double-double. Chagrin Falls returns home for a game with Hawken on Dec. 14 before five straight on the road. West Geauga goes to Orange on the same date. The score Chagrin Falls 54, West Geauga 48
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