In a season filled with its fair share of challenges, the Berkshire Badgers boys’ basketball team can hang its hat on reigning supreme in the Battle of Kinsman Road. The Badgers trumped Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division foe Cardinal 72-44 to sweep the season series last Friday evening in Middlefield.
“It means a lot to the kids, the whole school and the community,” said Berkshire Coach Joe Montanero. “It is a big deal. We haven’t been healthy all year and we are starting to get guys back and I told them we can make a little bit of a run and surprise some people.”
It marks the second straight season in which the Badgers (4-16, 3-5) have swept the season series against their Geauga County rivals. It will be the final time the Kinsman Road foes meet as CVC Valley Division rivals as Cardinal (3-18, 0-8) will join the Northeastern Athletic Conference next year, but the Kinsman Road rivalry is far from finished.
On Friday night, Berkshire’s fast start quickly evaporated when it’s 27-12 advantage was trimmed to only six points after the Huskies staged an 11-2 run.
According to sophomore guard Alex Bowman, in addition to some poor defense, the Badgers also suffered offensive lapses because of poor off-ball movement.
“We need to get into people and get open so we can have our point guard, whether it’s junior forward Luke Stute or me, bring the ball down so they can get open,” noted the sophomore.
Berkshire responded with an 8-0 run to end the second period, capped off by a buzzer-beating 3-point shot from halfcourt made by Bowman off an assist from junior guard/forward Billy Verbic, extending the Badgers’ lead to 39-23 at the half.
According to Berkshire’s third-year coach, his team’s run at the end of the second period was a great display of maturity, a very promising sign from a team that played only one senior.
“We started two sophomores and three juniors, so we are getting more mature every single game which is a good thing,” he added.
The Badgers carried the momentum from their end-of-the-half surge into the third period, going on a 13-5 run to take a commanding 50-28 edge in the middle of the third period.
As the Badgers caught their second wind, their defense was sharper, allowing the Huskies to score only eight points in the third period and built a 56-31 lead at the end of the quarter.
“We really stepped up after the second quarter drought when we let them go on a little run,” Bowman noted. “Going out in that third quarter, when we stepped up, that was good.”
Bowman paced a resurgent Berkshire squad with six points in the third period and finished the game with a team-leading 23 points, three rebounds and three assists.
“Alex missed two games earlier in the year and slowly came back,” Berkshire’s second-year coach said. “We know he can score the basketball. He is young and he is learning but he is going to be a really good player.
Cardinal Coach Kyle Deckerd acknowledged his team couldn’t find the spark that ignited them in the second period and suffered its 18th consecutive CVC Valley Division loss in the last two seasons. The Huskies will leave the CVC Valley Division having consecutive seasons of winless play in the league.
“These kids are digging deep,” the second-year coach said. “We would break the press and then four passes into running some motion offense we would just turn the ball over.”
Bowman said that in a season where not much as gone right for the Badgers, sweeping the season series against their archrival gave the team a nice boost for their second victory in the last four games.
Although Berkshire has not recorded many wins so far this season, Bowman said that Badgers’ best basketball is still yet to come.
“We have had our ups and downs and at the end of the day we are all brothers,” he added. “We all love each other, and the coaches trust us, and we trust them with all that we have. We just know that our record does not mean anything. We know who we are, and we can come out and beat the best team. We showed it against Crestwood when we lost by five, we were winning the entire game, but we made a few mistakes.”
After a home game against CVC rival Madison, the Badgers will wrap up their regular season with a road contest against Lakeview on Friday night at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, Cardinal will close out its regular season by hosting Fairport Harding on Friday evening at 7 p.m.
