The Garfield G-Men’s first attempt at overtaking Berkshire for the lead in the third quarter of their basketball game against the Badgers may not have been successful but they were not discouraged. Garfield took control in the fourth quarter, overcoming a double-digit deficit to edge the Badgers 72-65 last Friday evening at the JAG Fieldhouse in Garrettsville.
“It’s not supposed to be easy and it was not easy on Friday night,” said Garfield Coach Andy Olesky. “You have to give Berkshire credit for pushing us a little bit but in turn I give our kids 1,000% credit because they battled. We dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole and they came back and roared back with a great second half.”
Since the teams began playing each other as regular season rivals four years ago, the G-Men (2-0, 0-0) have held the edge, with last Friday’s victory marking its third straight win against Berkshire (0-2, 0-0). Although the G-Men have maintained the upper hand, senior guard Preston Gedeon acknowledged that it has been an exciting rivalry.
“It feels amazing to come out with a win but Berkshire is a great team,” said the 5-foot-9 senior guard. “They have great coaches and obviously run a great program. It is always great to play them because we always know they will put up a fight and give us a good contest.”
The G-Men increased their pace in the third quarter, sparked by junior guard Brandyn Bogucki, who ignited the G-Men’s offense with eight points, helping Garfield trim the Badgers’ lead to single digits.
“Brandyn is just so tenacious on defense,” Olesky said of the 5-foot-9 Bogucki who finished the game with 13 points, three assists and two rebounds. “He does a great job on that. He has given us some offense this year that I am not sure we counted on but we have needed that.”
But after a quick 4-0 spurt by Bogucki, the Badgers went on a 9-6 run to hold a 12-point edge entering the fourth period.
Once the G-Men got comfortable playing at a faster pace, their offense began to flow as senior forwards Aiden Hill, Nick Edic and Gedeon combined for 23 points in the final quarter.
Garfield swung the momentum in its favor when a fast break lay-up from Bogucki and a 3-pointer from Gedeon sparked a 5-0 run, cutting the Badgers’ lead to 56-49.
Despite a timeout called to stem the G-Men’s tide, Garfield did not slow down, going on a 10-2 run spurred by some sharp outside shooting as Bogucki and the 6-foot-4 Hill each knocked down 3-pointers and Hill gave the G-Men their first lead since the first period when he scored on a fast break lay-up, propelling Garfield ahead 59-58.
Olesky said that Garfield’s senior leadership was on full display in the fourth period.
Berkshire did not wither away as it buried a pair of 3-point shots to take a 64-62 advantage, but the G-Men were in full swing, mounting a 5-0 run to take control and Gedeon sealed the game by knocking down a pair of free throws with 24.6 seconds remaining to increase the lead to 69-64.
“Last year I knew my free throws were not good in crunch time,” Gedeon said after tallying 28 points and grabbing three rebounds. “It felt good to sink one and sink the next and to give us a little bit of a lead to get over the hump to win the game.”
After surrendering 56 points in the first three periods, the G-Men’s length and size prevailed in the fourth quarter especially on the defensive end, by holding Berkshire to nine points.
Although the G-Men held a distinct size advantage in the front court, they failed to capitalize on that advantage during the first half with countless misses at the rim.
Despite Garfield’s size advantage, the Badgers were the faster team in the first half, constantly pushing the pace.
“We were really just trying slow things down because we were going too quickly for the full court,” Gedeon noted, “Once we started to go into our full-court press in the fourth quarter, we started to turn it up and get easy lay-ups from their mistakes.”
After a road game against Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier foe Ravenna Southeast on Tuesday night, the G-Men will stay on the road and face Portage County rival Ravenna on Saturday evening at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, following a road game against Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division rival Crestwood on Wednesday night, the Badgers will host CVC Valley Division foe Kirtland at Burton on Saturday at 2:15 p.m.
