The Berkshire Badgers girls’ basketball team has stayed busy over the final days of their regular season, but finished on a high note, celebrating senior day by triumphing against Garfield 49-40 in the regular season finale last Saturday afternoon in Burton.
“We know it is one possession at a time and know a lot of teams go on runs,” Badgers’ Coach Dave Albert said. “We knew we had to try and limit their runs so we tried to pick up the ball and push it up tempo, which we did not do well in the first half so we wanted to try and push the ball as much as we could.”
Berkshire (14-8, 6-4) ends its regular season defeating its neighboring rival G-Men for the third straight season. Although Garfield (10-10, 7-5) owned a three-game winning streak against the Badgers across two seasons, the Badgers have gained the upper hand, as its last loss against the G-Men came in the 2022-23 season.
On Saturday, the Badgers struggled shooting the ball in the first three quarters, and Garfield appeared to be on the verge of pulling away in the third period when it went on a 9-0 run, keyed by its transition offense.
Senior guard Mallory Durosko acknowledged that the Badgers did not convert on several easy scoring opportunities.
“It is always tough when your shots are not going in and you can’t finish at the hoop,” added the Badgers’ senior, who scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds. “We knew we just had to keep shooting. It was the only way.”
After the G-Men pulled ahead 27-19, Berkshire countered with a 9-0 run to take a 28-27 advantage near the end of the period.
The Badgers’ sparked a run with their aggressive defense, allowing them to push the pace on the fast break to gain the upper hand.
Although Garfield went ahead 31-28 to finish out the third period, the Badgers’ defense was relentless in the fourth period, forcing the G-Men into committing 10 turnovers.
Garfield Coach Aaron Gilbert noted that several of those turnovers flipped the momentum in the Badgers’ favor.
“We needed to end possessions with shot attempts,” said the 19-year coach. “We were ending possessions with turnovers and turnovers that we could have controlled. It was nothing that they were doing but we were just throwing the incorrect pass. It is fixable stuff but at this time of the year, that type of stuff really bites you.”
In addition to once again sparking things through the defense, Berkshire overcame its shooting woes in the final period, going on a 12-4 run to hold a six-point advantage in the final minutes of regulation.
After surrendering 31 points to Garfield in the first three quarters, the Badgers’ defense limited their opponent to only nine points in the final frame.
“From watching the film, our goal coming out was to try and put pressure on them from,” said the second-year Berkshire coach. “Try to get them to throw some passes because we do the same thing at times when people try to put pressure on us by throwing passes and we wanted to make sure we were in the passing lanes. The first half, we were not in those passing lanes and in the fourth quarter, we got in those passing lanes to try to jump some of those passes.”
Although the Badgers ended their regular season winning fewer games than the previous year, Albert emphasized the higher degree of difficulty that Berkshire faced in its non-conference schedule this year.
According to him, he sought to challenge a team that graduated seven seniors and had a smaller senior class this season and was satisfied with the way that the Badgers rose to the challenge.
“Our opponents’’ winning percentage is at .670,” he said. “We have eight losses right now. That is a testament to our overall schedule that we played. Out of all 127 Ohio High School Athletic Association Division V teams, we by far have the highest opponent winning percentage. That shows the girls if we play together as a team, we have the great potential to hopefully make a run in the playoffs.
The Badgers will enjoy a week off in the final days of the regular season before hosting Pymatuning Valley in the OHSAA Division V Northeast 1 sectional championship in Burton on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.
After a home duel against Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference rival Liberty on Monday night and a road duel against league foe Brookside, the Lady G-Men will welcome Orrville to Garrettsville for the OHSAA Division V Northeast 3 sectional final on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.
