Lakewood, Ohio- The St. Ed's Eagles (6-0) hosted their crosstown rival St. Ignatius Wildcats (6-4) in a highly anticipated matchup Friday night. Coming into the game, the Eagles were ranked #1 in this weeks Cleveland.com High School Poll while the Wildcats were unranked.
St. Ed's started the game fast and sound. Senior guard Brevyn Coleman and junior center Wendell Henry combined for 18 of the Eagles 24 first quarter points. The Eagles jumped out to a 19-5 lead before the Wildcats went on a 7-2 run of themselves closing out the quarter down 24-16.
In the second quarter, the Eagles sharpened up even more on both sides of the court. The team would force three consecutive turnovers extendeding their lead up to 20 half way through the quarter. Four different players (Nshungu, Grant, Lavelle and Perusek) all scored at least 6 points in the quarter. Two Wildcats players in sophomore forward Damon Friery and senior guard Brayden Szczepaniak were the only players to score two or more buckets in the quarter. The Eagles took a commanding 54-29 halftime lead.
Most teams would throw in the towel down 25 at half. St. Ignatius head coach Cam Joyce wouldn't allow his team to give in. They took the entire halftime break to make adjustments, returning back to the court with less than a minute left in the break. Those adjustments worked well for the Wildcats as they outscored the Eagles 21-12 in the quarter. They cut down the plentiful turnovers that they were giving the Eagles and seven different players scored at least one bucket in the quarter to trim the once 20 point deficit to 16 at 66-50 after three.
The Eagles took the Wildcats best third quarter punch before delivering one of their own in the fourth. Senior forward Cameron Grant took the game into his own hands with his aggressiveness around the hoop. Grant and Coleman both would finish the game with 15 points to secure the blowout 86-64 victory over the Wildcats. Buckner, Szczepaniak and Friery led the Wildcats with 13 points.
The Wildcats dropped to a record of 6-5 while the Eagles stay perfect at 7-0 with a huge matchup against Lutheran East next Wednesday.
I spoke with St. Ed's coach Eric Flannery after the big win.
This game recap is brought to you by Brunswick Auto Mart
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