The Garfield G-Men boys’ basketball team has proven that they are not one-dimensional. They showed their versatility once again when they overpowered Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier foe Crestview 60-35 last Thursday evening in Richland County.
“I told the guys after the game that we did not play anywhere close to our best game of basketball, and we still won by 25 points,” said Coach Andy Olesky. “I have told the kids lately that we are doing a very, very nice job and have some definite strengths but at the same time we also have a lot of areas to grow in and I felt that we could be scary good if we continue to grow.”
Off to their best start in league play since joining the MVAC Grey Tier for in 2020-21 season, Garfield’s (9-1, 4-0) defense has also played at a high level, allowing no more than 42 points during its four-game winning streak.
Last Thursday, the G-Men seized control by sparking their offense on fast breaks, paced by senior guard Preston Gedeon who scored eight points to push Garfield ahead 15-7.
“To start the game, we did do what we wanted to do and that is a positive to our guys, but we just were not able to sustain it for the most part,” said the 12-year coach.
According to Olesky, despite holding a comfortable lead, the G-Men’s execution was lacking at several points of the game. Nonetheless, Garfield’s defense continued stifling the Rebels and surrendered only 13 points in the first half to take a 19-point edge into the break.
One of Garfield’s biggest strengths this year has been its multi-dimensional approach, using the length and size of its three tallest players in senior forwards Aidan Hill, Nick Edic and Cade Rock to control the paint while junior guard Brandyn Bogucki and the 5-foot-8 Gedeon have pushed the tempo.
Most of the G-Men’s opponents have had to pick their poison on how to slow down Garfield.
“That is one of the great things about our team,” noted Olesky. “We can do a lot of things in a lot of different ways, and we have a unique combination of size and speed which always is not synonymous. The fact that we have some speed with our bigs, and some speed with our guards, we do want to utilize that but at the same time, that is definitely possible so again versatility is a pretty big part of our team.”
The G-Men’s multi-faceted approach was evidenced by having no fewer than four players score in each quarter.
In the third quarter, Garfield’s defense revitalized their fast break game and Olesky credited the 5-foot-8 Bogucki for igniting the G-Men on another big run to strengthen their grip on the game to extend their lead to 45-23.
“We extended him up in the defensive pressure with him picking up their guards and made Crestview a little uncomfortable,” he added. “It created and sparked some turnovers which lead to our runouts which is what we want to do. We went on a little bit of a mini run there to put the game out of reach but again it was all spearheaded by Brandyn’s defensive pressure up top.”
In addition to setting themselves up as a top team in the MVAC Grey Tier this season, Olesky credited the chemistry of the team for being a key contributor in the team’s early success. According to him, the team’s camaraderie can be traced back to their days playing together while at the grade school level.
While Gedeon paced the G-Men by scoring 19 points, the 6-foot-4 Hill added 12 points while Bogucki scored 12 points.
Olesky said that having three players score in double figures was just another example of how balanced the G-Men are this year.
“That’s what we want,” he said. “Obviously somebody is going to be our leading scorer and it is Preston right now and again that is a credit to Preston with how hard he works and how hard he runs the floor and his shot-making ability, but the way we play it could be anybody on any given night. We love to move the body, love to run the floor, and that is not something as a coach I can specifically draw up.”
The G-Men’s record dropped to 9-2 (4-1) when they fell 66-63 against MVAC Grey Tier rival Brookfield in a road game on Friday night.
Following a road game against MVAC Grey Tier rival LaBrae on Thursday night, Garfield will face Portage County rival Crestwood on Saturday evening at Hiram College at 5 p.m.
