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Garfield Heights, Ohio – Cuyahoga Heights Redskins’ senior guard Devon Patel had the game riding on his shoulders as he stepped up to the free throw line with under 30 seconds to play. Nonetheless the Redskins’ guard kept his composure and drained both free throws and Cuyahoga Heights held on to shock its Chagrin Valley Conference rivals the Berkshire Badgers in a thrilling 38-37 victory in its season debut on Friday evening.
“I was confident in making it. I come here shooting every single day and I was not nervous at all,” said the five-foot-ten Redskins’ guard.
The Badgers were holding onto a 37-36 lead in the final seconds. The Redskins (1-0) had several fouls to give and were doing everything they could to try and steal the ball to give themselves a shot. Patel came up with the big play as he stripped the ball from Berkshire junior guard Matt Heffern in the backcourt. Heffern immediately fouled Patel and put him on the line. After he made both shots the Badgers (0-1) had one more chance but lost track of time and had to settle for a last-second heave.
“It’s tremendous,” said Cuyahoga Heights’ Head Coach Michael Tartara, “I appreciate the fact that Berkshire was coming out to play. All the kids who have been putting in time and effort with the unknown makes it special. I just told the kids, ‘If we lose that game it’s still important that you learn off of every opportunity.’ The kids played their butts off. We didn’t make nearly enough foul shots but Devin fortunately made the last two that we attempted.”
Both teams got off to a shaky start to open the game. It wasn’t shocking given the unusual circumstances that have led to an unusual offseason courtesy of the pandemic. The two teams combined for 12 turnovers in the first quarter alone. Patel helped put the Redskins out front early by knocking down a pair of three-pointers. That helped stake Cuyahoga Heights out to an early 9-2 lead. The Badgers simply had no rhythm in the first quarter as everything was out of sorts. The Redskins’ zone defense was giving Berkshire all sorts of fits.
“We were really slow to start the game off. It’s always difficult coming out to Cuyahoga Heights. We came out flat and missed a lot of shots,” said Badgers’ Head Coach Ryan Dickard, “Kind of just jogging through things offensively.”
Berkshire slowly but surely overcame their offensive woes as the game wore on. In the third quarter it seemed like things were finally clicking. The ball started moving and when that starts usually good things happen. Suddenly the shots started to fall.
“We made of couple of adjustments at halftime that seemed to help them out,” said Coach Dickard, “A lot of our offense in the first half was kind of just false motion. We made that adjustment and got a lot better looks in the second half and did a lot better offensively because of it.”
The Redskins didn’t let the Badgers take the momentum. The Cuyahoga Heights offense stood its ground and traded baskets with its opponent. It was a huge response for a young team as Cuyahoga Heights entered the season with an entirely different starting lineup after seeing all of its starters graduate the year before.
“We graduated 11 seniors last season. The fact that we have a completely new group shows you how resilient these boys are,” said Coach Tartara.
Berkshire entered the season with three of their starters from the previous season still in tow. Junior forward Isaac Potter scored seven straight points to push the Badgers out to a 33-32 lead for the first time in the game. It seemed like the more experienced team was going to win the day but the Redskins kept fighting until the end until the final horn sounded and victory was theirs.
The Redskins’ next game is tentatively scheduled to be played on Dec. 12 at home against CVC rival Cardinal while the Badgers’ next contest has them scheduled to host Rootstown next Tuesday.
Berkshire Player of the Game:
Junior forward Isaac Potter: 10 points, four rebounds and three assists
Cuyahoga Heights Player of the Game:
Senior guard Devon Patel: 11 points, three rebounds and one assist
