Wickliffe had a stout defensive stand in the second quarter against Berkshire on Dec. 27. The Blue Devils held the Badgers without a field goal for the first six minutes of the frame. Despite the rebounding struggles for the Blue Devils, they walked away with the 64-47 victory. Wickliffe improves to 5-3 on the season, and Berkshire drops to 1-7. The start of the game featured the Blue Devils’ duo of Walter Cable and Jimmy Wheeler controlling the game. They combined for 27 of the team’s 37 first-half points. Cable has had to be the spark plug for Wickliffe the past two seasons, but now he knows he has someone that he can wheel and deal with if he’s having an off night. “To be honest, we just try to come out with energy,” Wheeler said. “We prioritize that in the locker room before, and we know that we can do that every time. We always want to give 110% every time and that effort.” While the offense was going, the defense locked in as well. Wickliffe finished the first quarter on a 10-0 run and held Berkshire without a field goal for a majority of the second quarter. That allowed them to accrue a 24 point halftime lead. Coach Marc Lewis was happy with the effort on defense, especially with the overall improvement on that end of the floor. “The idea was that we have yet to play a full four quarters the way we do,” Lewis said. “Usually we start slow and bring it on later or vice versa. This game we tried to have that momentum throughout. We were a little slow in the third quarter and again, that’s one of the things we have to work through still.” Then in the third quarter, Berkshire found its rhythm. They leaned heavily on Cameron Beam to get in the lane and either get the putback score or find a trip to the line. Berkshire’s Cameron Beam looks up court Dec. 27 at Wickliffe. (Paul DiCicco – for The News-Herald) While Wickliffe’s lead never whittled to below double figures, the Badgers were clawing into it. Before the fourth quarter, Cable had a simple message to the team: Finish the game how they started. “We had to play hard on defense,” Cable said. “Finish to the buzzer, do everything that we need to on that end and that’s what we did. We’re not a selfish team. Whoever is hot, we’re going to feed them. We’ll get them around and set screens to shoot or drive.” That’s exactly what Wickliffe did. The Blue Devils poured in 17 fourth-quarter points, all through Cable and Wheeler to close out the CVC Valley victory. Cable finished with a double-double of 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Wheeler added 22 and seven. Even though the Blue Devils walked away with the win, Lewis knows there’s one area they desperately need to improve on: Controlling the glass. Berkshire outrebounded Wickliffe 37-29 and the pair of Beam and Michael Costantini nearly combined to outrebound the Blue Devils (23). “From a rebounding standpoint, oddly enough, we’re typically shorter than the teams we play,” Lewis said. “So rebounding is never really a focal point for us. What we try to do is when they get a rebound try and force a turnover right away, knowing that we have that issue.” While they weren’t able to capture the second win of the season, Coach Joe Montanaro liked the team’s second-half effort. But translating that to a game is a challenge with the Badgers’ recent schedule. They go from one practice to game and repeat the cycle. “We missed a few shots, and in the first half I wasn’t really happy with how we played,” Montanaro said. “I let them know that at the half. They responded well, and in the one timeout that was called, I told them I was really proud of them. We have a young team, just one senior compared to Wickliffe’s eight. That’s no excuse, but it’s a thing that can affect games.” Beam finished as the high man for the Badgers with a double-double of 20 points and 14 rebounds. Constantini finished just short of a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Wickliffe continues a five game homestand with Fairport on Dec. 30. Berkshire aims to rebound with a visit from Chagrin Falls on the same day. THE SCORE Wickliffe 64, Berkshire 47