West Geauga and North entered the Wolvarena with the same 5-3 records. But the Wolverines started fast. Landon Lear scored 16 points as West Geauga raced to a 20-point lead at the end of the first, and the margin hung around there all contest. The Wolverines took the win, 71-54, and moved to 6-3. The Rangers fell to 5-4. Lear came out shooting and finished with a game-high 24 points. He passed 1,000 career points in the game before, becoming the fifth boys player to reach the mark for the Wolverines. Reaching the milestone allowed him to play freely against the Rangers. “It’s hard to fight back when you start slow,” Lear said. “It’s a relief and I’m a lot more confident now. I struggled the last couple of games and this whole season has been a bit of a slump. But to have a game like this and build confidence as a team is a good feeling.” While Lear continued to be the one leading the charge for West Geauga, his teammates stepped up to complete a strong first half. Finn Kennan hit three 3-pointers and Colin Whiting and Cooper Paskowski worked inside and out to help build and maintain the advantage. Coach Micah Young said it’s been an up-and-down start to the season, but he views the game with North as the perfect launching point. “We have good players and they went out and executed the game plan,” Young said. “Two out of the three losses this year were that we played slow. Anytime we lose, it’s a good opportunity to re-emphasize and get back to basics. We like the transition game and have good athletes. And when we don’t have the look we try to pull it out and recenter.” Keenan and Whiting also finished in double figures with 13 and 10 points, respectively, while Ryan Mobley had eight. West Geauga also forced 12 turnovers in the second half to create those transition points. Getting everyone to play around each other has been the goal of Young and Lear this season and he knows that some games offer a better look at that than others. But getting it to be consistent will help them in the CVC title race. “Our message to our guys is that we have confidence in every single one of our players,” Young said. “When we have everyone hitting shots like that, we’re tough to beat. But in our losses, we’ve relied a little to much on Landon and watching Colin dribble the ball. But when we’re moving it and playing for one and other, we’re tough to beat.” Lear added: “When we can put up 70 points in a game, that gives us a shot most nights. When our team is hot, we’re playing together and moving the ball. And when Colin and I can get downhill and find our shooters, they can be pretty lethal.” North had had mini-runs that shrunk the lead, but the Rangers were never able to find a run to get over the hump. Coach Nick Meyer said North has played strong all year with the game against West Geauga being more of an outlier. The Wolverines limited Nate Tadiello, the Rangers’ leader in every category, to 14 points. Meyer said that with WRC competition on the horizon, they need to have a short-term memory and focus on their next outing. “They knocked down shots,” Meyer said. “We do a pretty good job of holding teams low in efficient field goal percentage. Credit to West Geauga, they knocked down those shots. Lear can get downhill and use his length but also kick it out to guys that can shoot. We need to close out and get to the help side faster.” That outing for North is Jan. 7 at Kenston, its first WRC contest. West Geauga jumps back into CVC play when it travels to Perry the same day.