It has been a while since the Berkshire Badgers boys’ basketball team reigned supreme against Geauga County rival the Cardinal Huskies. Berkshire dominated its Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division foe 66-35 to sweep the Battle of Kinsman Road series last Friday night in Burton.
“It’s great,” said Badgers’ Coach Joe Montanero. “We have already won six of our last seven. We did not play very well in the first half, and I was not very happy with that but they really came back. I tell them all the time we want to be somebody’s problem and I think in the second half we were their problem.”
Last season saw the Huskies (4-16, 0-9) sweep the season series against Berkshire (9-9, 5-4) and that did not sit well with some of Berkshire’s returning players. Last Friday’s victory marked the first time the Badgers swept Cardinal in the season series since the 2020-21 campaign.
“It’s big,” said Berkshire junior guard/forward Gavin Hipp. “This is a really healthy rivalry, and we know these guys and they know us well. After the results of last year and moving into this new school and the big event we had here, we knew it was not acceptable to be 0-2 against them last year so it just fueled a fire for us on Friday night and it resulted in how we played.”
It was a less than ideal start for the Badgers when they fell behind 10-5 near the end of the first quarter. Things changed when Huskies’ senior guard Troy Domen committed his second foul with 43.4 seconds remaining in the opening period.
According to Berkshire’s second-year coach, Berkshire capitalized on attacking Domen defensively and went on a 4-0 scoring surge, trimming the deficit to one point before the end of the period.
“That was huge,” Montanero acknowledged. “He is one of the best players in the conference. Once he got his second one, we ran a bunch of stuff for senior guard Jack Hastings. He was guarding Jack so that made it really hard on him and things just started flowing.”
The Badgers continued to roll, staging a 10-0 run at the beginning of the second period to go ahead 19-10. After Cardinal responded with a 6-0 run, Hipp sparked the Badgers by scoring 11 points, knocking down three-of-five 3-pointers. Things continued trending in their favor as Domen continued to collect fouls and was issued his fourth foul with 1:50 remaining before the half.
Huskies’ Coach Kyle Deckerd acknowledged he should have pulled Domen earlier after he got into foul trouble.
“It was tough because we lean on Troy for everything and when he is not out there we cannot really lean on him,” noted Cardinal’s first-year coach.
Berkshire outscored the Huskies by a 22-11 margin to take a 31-21 lead into the half and carried that momentum into the second half, going on a 9-5 run before things finally boiled over for Cardinal when Domen was issued a technical foul, which counted as his fifth foul, with 2:59 left in the quarter.
Hipp said that when Cardinal’s leading scorer had his night end early, Berkshire saw its opportunity to pounce.
“I’d be lying if I said that was not going to help us,” he added. “I am confident in my guys and even if he was not in foul trouble, we had a gameplan in place and I believe we executed.”Once Domen left the game, Berkshire dominated by going on a 17-0 spree, increasing its lead to 57-28 at the end of the quarter.
According to Deckerd, losing Domen not only stung offensively but also left a huge hole on Cardinal’s defensive end.
“Troy is the best defender in the county,” Deckerd said. “It hurts when he is not out there. He can get his hands on anything and anywhere around him, so it really hurt that he was out of the game in the second half.”
The Badgers continued punishing Cardinal from the outside, draining three 3-pointers in the third period, paced by Hipp who led Berkshire by scoring 23 points, shooting six-of-12 from beyond the arc.
“Gavin shoots the ball like that at practice every day and we just need him to bring into the game,” Montanero said. “He has been getting better and better so it was huge.”
The victory against Cardinal put Berkshire at the .500 mark for the first time this season and gives them a chance to finish at .500 or better for the first time since the 2020-21 season while Cardinal was sent spiraling to its sixth consecutive loss to remain winless in CVC Valley Division play this year.
Following a crossover CVC game against conference foe Madison on Tuesday night, the Badgers will host Lakeview on Friday at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, after a road game against CVC Valley Division rival Wickliffe on Tuesday evening, the Huskies will stay on the road and take on Fairport Harding in Lake County on Friday night at 7 p.m.
