Try as they might, the Berkshire Badgers boys’ basketball team could not find its stride against Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division foe Wickliffe. Berkshire’s inconsistent play led to a 56-51 defeat against the Blue Devils last Saturday afternoon in Burton.
“We have had trouble scoring all year,” said Coach Joe Montanero. “When we are scoring and putting the ball in the basket we are pretty good because we play hard on defense. On Saturday, right off the get go we could not get the ball in the basket. We started fighting back. We had a lot of good open looks.”
Since the 2021-22 season, the Badgers (2-5, 1-2) had won four straight games against their CVC Valley Division foes. On Saturday, Berkshire allowed the Blue Devils to get comfortable at the beginning of the game and had to play catch-up.
Trailing 50-47 near the end of the fourth quarter with 1:25 remaining, the Badgers trimmed the lead to one point when junior guard/forward Gavin Hipp scored on a drive to the basket.
It marked the first time that the Badgers were within only one point since trailing 20-19 in the middle of the second quarter, but Berkshire could not score the go-ahead basket. After missing several shots, Berkshire resorted to fouling Wickliffe players to extend the game.
After Blue Devils’ senior forward Jimmy Wheeler split a pair of free throws, Berkshire’s offensive woes continued plaguing them and Blue Devils’ junior guard Walter Cable knocked down three of four free throws at the end to preserve Wickliffe’s lead.
Wickliffe only shot 14-of-24 from the foul line but the Badgers also struggled, going 10-of-20 including shooting only three-of-five from the foul line in the fourth period.
According to the second-year coach, foul shooting has not been the Badgers’ forte this season, and it showed when they only shot 40% from the free throw line in their loss against Garfield on Jan. 3.
“We have pulled everything out of the box to try and fix that,” noted the second-year coach. “We have done everything we can think of to try and improve our free throw shooting.”
In addition to poor free throw shooting, Berkshire missed several open looks at the basket and their offense never got going. Despite a strong defensive effort which kept them in the game, it was not enough and sent them to their third straight loss.
Entering the game without a win this season, the Blue Devils had a fast start in the first period, sparked by Cable who scored seven points and paced Wickliffe to a 12-2 lead.
Berkshire did not score a field goal until senior guard Jack Hastings scored a basket off an assist from senior forward Mason Mendolera at the 2:45 mark of the first period.
Despite the slow start, Berkshire went on a 7-0 run, cutting the Blue Devils’ lead to 12-9 at the end of the quarter. The Badgers found some steam in the second period, fueled by a 10-6 run to take one-point lead but a pair of turnovers ignited the Blue Devils and they went on a 6-2 spree at the end of the half.
In addition to struggling to find any offensive consistency, the Badgers could not maintain a fast pace because both teams committed numerous fouls. The teams combined to commit 47 fouls, and it resulted in a lot time stoppages and Montanero acknowledged it disrupted Berkshire’s rhythm.
“We want to play at that fast pace,” he said. “We did not match Wickliffe’s energy off of the get go. I don’t think the referees did a bad job or anything like that but we made a couple of fouls by not moving our feet enough and not jumping to the ball.”
Despite the Badgers outrebounding Wickliffe by a 57-31 margin, it still was not enough to overcome a bad start.
It was another game with a lot of growing pains for a Badger squad that returned only four players with varsity experience in senior guard Miles Miller, Mendolera, Hastings and Hipp.
Montanero said Berkshire’s small group of seniors have done an admiral job of helping their young teammates through their first full varsity season, but it has been tough sledding for Berkshire to overcome a lack of experience especially when it has four sophomores on the court at times.
“That’s what you see right now,” Montanero added. “It is January and we have been going at it for two months now and some of them are hitting a wall because they are young and are not used to that grind yet but we are getting better.”
Following a road game against CVC Valley Division rival Cardinal on Tuesday night, the Badgers will welcome conference rival Crestwood on Friday at 7 p.m. then host conference rival Independence for a crossover game on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
