by GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio– Once Cleveland Heights gained momentum early on, there was no stopping them.
They eventually ran away with a 76-60 win against the Falcons, largely in part of the way senior point guard and game MVP Shemarion Hardy played.
He finished with 17 points and 12 assists during the win and he made sure to let everybody know that his team is here to stay.
“Don’t count us out…we got a lot of new guys out there,” Hardy said.
Falcon forward Jesse McCulloch battled an ankle injury throughout the night, an injury that occurred in the game’s opening minutes. It seemed to limit the big man as he was constantly subbing in and out of the game.
The Falcons even went to a zone defense to start the second quarter, when the Tigers started to catch fire from behind the arc. They went on a 12-0 run in the span of four minutes ending the first quarter and into the second quarter with Rondelle Pollard taking command of the offense.
There simply was no stopping what JR Bremer and his staff drew up and executed throughout the first half. They did what most teams in the area couldn’t do and that was limit the high-octane Falcon offense.
The Tigers took a 39-27 lead at halftime, as the Falcons simply had no answer, facing a double-digit deficit for the majority of the second quarter.
Even in the second half, there was no letup from JR Bremer’s team. He prides his team on the way they’re able to play together and unselfish basketball on the floor. Those were keys of the game that kept their lead in double figures for all of the second half.
ALL @Heights_Hoops, they’ve controlled this game since the start of the second quarter. They lead 50-29, 5:46 left in the 3rd Q. @SportsKee1 @ShemarionHardy3 pic.twitter.com/QL2jLUxkZb
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) December 22, 2022
“These guys have been together since their freshman year,” Bremer said. “It’s rare to have that many guys play together as freshmen, sophomores, juniors and now seniors.”
However, Falcon’s highly-touted freshman TJ Crumble did all he can to get his team back within striking distance. A couple of stops on the defensive side of the ball led to easy points in the paint for Crumble.
He finished with a game-high 26 points and he even helped bring the Cleveland Heights lead down to 12 points, but there just wasn’t enough for them to get it within single digits.
A large part of that was the way Bremer’s team practiced leading up to the holiday tournament. The main point of emphasis was on the defensive side of the ball and handling adversity.
It’s safe to say the Tigers understood the message throughout the week
“We played a lot of defense, full-court pressure, and a lot of running,” Hardy said. “We start to trust each other in practice, drive and kick and we knocked down our shots…..I believe in our team.”
Braylen Irby led the way for the Tigers with a team-high 17 points during the win. Crumble had a game-high 26 points during the loss along with 10 points from Cody Head and eight from Nelson Johnson.
