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CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio–Three-point shooting proved to be the difference-maker Tuesday night. Kenston (10-6, 8-2) made 13 3-pointers, sweeping the season series between Mayfield (14-5, 8-2) and taking the Western Reserve Conference lead behind a 71-56 win.
“This is our brand of basketball, this is what we played all year,” head coach Derrick DeJarnette said. “It’s nice to beat Mayfield twice. It was a huge win for us to get us back to where we need to be because we’re a pretty dangerous team also.”
Senior forward Anthony Yohman put together an impressive outside performance, starting with knocking down two 3-pointers in the opening quarter. He finished with a game-high 23 points, including five 3-pointers during the win.
“Anthony needed a breakout game,” DeJarnette said. “He was kind of struggling lately but he really said he was ready to play and came out and showed it.”
“I don’t really know how to explain it,” Yohman chuckled after trying to explain his big night behind the arc. “I couldn’t miss.”
With the win, both Mayfield and Kenston are now 7-2 in conference play. Since the Bombers swept the season series against Mayfield, they are currently in possession of first place in the Western Reserve Conference.
Kenston didn’t trail Tuesday night. From the opening quarter, they proved that tonight was their night shooting the ball. They were able to get out to an early 16-8 lead after the first quarter.
The Wildcats weren’t able to gain an advantage closing out the first half as Kenston connected on seven 3-pointers in the half. Whenever Mayfield would feel like they were within striking distance, there was another 3-pointer that deflated the Wildcats.
“They knocked down a lot of shots,” Mayfield head coach Will Brand said. “We knew that they are a good shooting team when they get hot…we were just a step too slow. Whenever we made a run, no matter how close we got, two straight threes blew the game back open for them.”
The third quarter was Mayfield’s best quarter, starting with big men Kyle Irwin and Hayden Nahra. The Wildcat bigs were able to establish more of an inside game to cut the deficit to single digits. Irwin himself has a 7-0 run to get the Wildcats within nine with under three minutes left in the quarter.
With that, the Wildcats trailed by six entering the fourth quarter.
But like they did for most of the night, Kenston ran away with it from their sharp-shooting performance. Mayfield trailed 53-46 with five minutes left in the game. Two minutes later, they were trailed 64-48, going on a swift 11-2 run behind three 3-pointers to really put the pressure on Mayfield.
Rebounding was one aspect of the game Mayfield struggled with during the loss. Kenston created a slew of second chance opportunities and with the way they were shooting the ball Tuesday night, it got out of hand in a hurry.
“I think we had 13 total rebounds in the game and that’s far below what we normally get,” Brand said. “Big credit to them coming off a tough loss to Willoughby South.”
“I told them in practice you got to box those guys out, Irwin and Nahra, those guys can jump,” DeJarnette said. “So you got to box out, grab the boards and everything worked out for us.”
For the game, Anthony Yohman, Nick Cowoski, Justin Ford and Andy Kooser all finished in double-digit scoring to pace the Bomber offense.
For the Wildcats, Irwin led the scoring with 12 points along with 11 apiece from Giovanni DiTomaso and Damir Pulley and nine points from Hayden Nahra.
Beating a team twice in the same season is no easy task. Coach DeJarnette knows that and understands that this is the level of play he knows his team is capable of performing at.
“This is our brand of basketball, this is what we played all year,” DeJarnette explained. “It’s nice to beat Mayfield twice. It was a huge win for us to get us back to where we need to be because we’re a pretty dangerous team also.”
Love Derrick