Chagrin Falls used a strong defensive effort to knock off visiting West Geauga on Tuesday, 53-31.
The Tigers led 17-5 after the first quarter and 27-14 at the break.
“Our defensive effort tonight was terrific, especially early in the game,” said Chagrin Falls coach Dave Bargar. “We didn’t give them many clean looks at the basket and that enabled us to get out in transition and get some easy baskets.”
Chagrin Falls overcame a bit of adversity in the second quarter when the Tigers struggled to convert on the offensive end.
That trouble didn’t last long.
“We hit a dry spell in the second quarter where our shots weren’t falling, even though we had good looks,” Bargar said. “Nick Vinci and Henry Newell both made big 3-pointers late in the second quarter that allowed us to extend the lead heading into the second half.”
Newell finished the game with 15 points and eight rebounds. Vinci and Nick Calabrese also scored in double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Calabrese drained three 3s in the win. James Kosmides contributed with six points and five blocked shots and Max Crandall added four points, eight rebounds, five assists, and four steals.
“We had a lot of guys contribute to the win tonight,” Bargar said. “Everyone did their part whether it showed in the box score or not. It was a total team win.”
With the win, Chagrin Falls improved to 9-4 overall and 6-1 in the Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division.
“I really like where we are defensively right now,” Bargar said. “We are still looking for some more consistency on the offensive end and need to get easy baskets in transition if we are going to be successful moving forward. We have some challenging games coming up so we need to be good at both ends if we want to beat that caliber of teams.”
Landon Lear led West Geauga with 11 points.
