CHESTERLAND–West Geauga used a big second half to defeat visiting Harvey, 63-45, in a “get right game” on Wednesday.
The Wolverines took a 24-21 lead into the half before turning it on for a 20-12 third-quarter run, riding that momentum to victory.
“The shots weren’t falling in the second half,” said West Geauga head coach Micah Young. “We were still moving the ball and getting good looks, but we weren’t playing fast enough. That was our emphasis at halftime.”
Colin Whiting got his night going with seven first-quarter points, with four more coming from Ryan Mobley and Landon Lear for a 15-7 lead after one frame of play.
Harvey turned the tables in the second quarter with an early 10-2 run backed by a pair of Armani Hall 3-pointers and buckets from Chase Goines and Deonte Ware.
The Wolverines found a way to weather the storm with a small 7-4 run, retaking the lead with a Lear half-court buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the 24-21 lead at the break.
The half-court 3-pointer turned the tide in West Geauga’s favor, simultaneously being its first 3-pointer of the first half.
“We did not shoot the ball well in the first half,” Lear said. “We were getting great looks but couldn’t convert. But seeing that (shot) go through definitely got everyone in the swing of things and got our confidence up. We shot better in the second half, but still not where we want to be.”
The Wolverine offense had a lot of success in the third quarter, with Whiting scoring seven more points, Finn Keenan making a pair of 3-pointers, and Cooper Paskowski floater near the end of the quarter that gave West Geauga a 44-33 lead heading into the fourth.
At one point in the third, Harvey cut its deficit to 40-33, thanks to a Ware and-one finish and a transition layup by Hall off a Goines block, but couldn’t sustain the momentum.
“We had a couple of mental lapses,” said Harvey head coach Eric Monty. “Our guys just got tired, but we can’t have mental lapses when that happens. It’s just cleaning up mental mistakes when we get tired.”
West Geauga closed it out in the fourth with a pair of Whiting 3-pointers to go along with his eight fourth-quarter points and five more from Paskowski.
The Red Raiders tried to hang tough with the Wolverines, as Kam Leftwich and Goines scored four points each.
The 39 second-half points from West Geauga is precisely what the doctor ordered with a “get right game” following a loss to rival Chagrin Falls and a hard-fought win at Orange with reigning Chagrin Division champion Hawken waiting in the wings for a rematch between the top two teams in the conference championship race from last season.
“(This win) gives us a lot of confidence going into Friday,” Young said. “We know Hawken’s a really good team, and they beat us in the league championship last year, so this is a game we’ve had circled on our schedule since last year. Hawken’s very well-coached. The things we did well tonight absolutely have to carry over to Friday against Hawken.”
Whiting broke out of his 6-of-29 shooting slump against Chagrin Falls and Orange to put together a 26-point performance before another big test for West Geauga.
“My message to him was, ‘Just shoot through (the slump),’” Young said. “He continued to play hard and let his defense take care of it. He did a nice job of getting steals and getting out in transition. He’s a great defender. He just had to shoot through it, and that’s what he did tonight.”
He led all scorers with 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting with four steals. Lear pitched in with 15 points with five steals and Paskowski pitched in with seven off the bench.
Mobley and Keenan pitched in with six points each.
Harvey fell to 1-6 but demonstrated that it can compete with some of the top teams in the Chagrin Valley Conference.
“We played a good first half,” Monty said. “We weathered the storm and kept it close. For as well as we played in the first half, we had to carry it over into the second half, but we did the exact opposite. It’s just going to take consistency and practice hard every day. Practice how you play.”
Hall led the Red Raiders with 15 points and Goines contributed 13.
Ware and Leftwich scored six each.
West Geauga travels to Hawken on December 20, while Harvey hosts Orange on December 21.
