Last season, the Garfield G-Men girls’ basketball team experienced their worst season in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier since joining it in the 2020-21 season. The G-Men’s hope to turn things around this year is already off to a good start as they stifled MVAC Grey Tier rival Champion 42-39 in their conference opener last Friday evening at the JAG Fieldhouse in Garrettsville.
“It’s big for us especially opening up league play,” said Coach Aaron Gilbert. “We played tremendous defense, especially in the middle two quarters, giving up four total points. I thought that changed the game, being able to outscore them 20-4 between the second and third periods and I think that really helped us be able to get a lead and then able to hang on toward the end.”
Since becoming members of the MVAC Grey Tier, Garfield (1-2, 1-0) had only lost one game in the conference rivalry against the Golden Flashes until last year when Champion swept the regular season series. Despite it being only the third game of the season, the 18-year coach acknowledged it was good for his squad to resume its winning ways against its conference foes.
“When we have played Champion over the years, it has always been a meaningful game whether it be for a district championship or a conference rival,” Gilbert noted. “For them to get us both times, they had not done that before. We had gotten the best of them quite a few years in a row going back, so being able to open up league play with them is a bit more special.”
Gilbert said that the G-Men did not look sharp in the first period when they were outscored by an 18-13 margin.
He added that turnover issues plagued Garfield in the opening quarter but also missed defensive rotations were costly, resulting in the Golden Flashes burying three 3-point shots with senior guards Kennedy Caldwell and Addie Warzala being responsible for all nine points from beyond the arc.
Despite some less than ideal defense, Garfield stayed within striking distance as junior wing Mandy Cardinal ignited the team by scoring eight points in the first quarter.
According to Gilbert, it was the first time this season that the 6-foot junior showed flashes of her old self before suffering a torn ACL near the end of last year.
“Definitely at times you could tell that she took a couple of shots that look like the old Mandy,” he added. “I think that is one of the things that is going to happen with her most of the year, it is going to be getting confidence in that leg.”
Cardinal continued pacing Garfield in the second quarter, scoring nine points to help the G-Men overtake Champion for the lead. Although the G-Men only recorded 14 points in the quarter, they took a 27-20 lead into the half after surrendering only two points.
Gilbert said that the teams each tried slowing the other down with full court presses but thanks to Cardinal, which finished the game with 23 points, the G-Men dismantled Champion’s trap defense.
“Our pressure is not something that will create turnovers as much as take tempo away, not necessarily get a lot of steals, but hopefully get some bad reads and throw the ball away which, again, we did on several occasions, so I thought we did a good job with that.,” Gilbert added.
The Golden Flashes ran a box-and-one zone defense in the third quarter, specifically designed to take the ball out of Cardinal’s hands and it was successful, as she did not score any points.
Over the span of the second and third periods, Garfield outscored the Golden Flashes by a 20-4 margin to take an 11-point lead into the fourth period.
“We are not an offensively explosive team,” Gilbert said. “We are going to have to grind games out and keep games in the 30s and 40s. If games start to get up to the 50s and then the 60s, we are just not capable of keeping up with that firepower, but if we can keep games into the 30s and 40s, it might not be pretty for the spectators but it is the type of game we have to grind out to win.”
Despite allowing Champion to shoot 13 free throws in the final frame, the Golden Flashes only made three and Gilbert said that the G-Men made enough winning plays to preserve the lead en route to their first victory.
The G-Men girls will host MVAC Grey Tier foe Liberty on Friday evening at 7 p.m. then hit the road to face Badger in Trumbull County on Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m.
