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WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio– It’s never easy beating a team twice in the same season. With that, Shaker Heights helped pull off a late scare from Warrensville Heights, securing a 79-72 win Friday night.
It was a win after losing to Warresnville back on Jan. 5, in an 85-82 overtime thriller.
“This was a game we needed,” Daniel Young said after scoring a game-high 27 points Friday night. “Warrensville is a really good team and we feel like we can really compete with anyone.”
It was a fast start for Tyishawn Smiley and the Tigers early on. He scored eight of the team’s first 17 points, with the team holding an eight-point lead after the first quarter after really honing in on the 6-foot-6 length of the senior forward inside the paint.
Jaden Hameed’s corner 3-pointer puts Warrensville Heights up 27-9 after the first quarter. pic.twitter.com/9JWjRJhXdE
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) February 6, 2021
Then the Raiders were able to chip away. They outscored the Tigers 25-14 to take a 34-31 lead heading into halftime.
Senior forward Ramelle Arnold then picked up two early fouls in the third quarter, putting him at four fouls for the game in the first two minutes of the second half.
That’s when Shaker started to open the game up.
In fact, with the Raiders switching to a zone defense throughout the third quarter–that limited Warrensville’s opportunities to find Smiley inside the paint as easily as they did in the first half– scoring points come at a premium for the Tigers.
Cody Head’s 3-pointer gets the Raiders back up ten with 2 mins left in the 3rd Q. pic.twitter.com/JfGMmW3oxJ
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) February 6, 2021
The Raiders closed the final three minutes of the third quarter on a 13-0 run, pushing their lead to 17 points heading into the fourth quarter.
“It hurt us, that kind of took the wind out of our sail a little bit,” Warrensville coach Brian Swift said about Shaker switching to a zone defense in the second half. “It was rough. We kept fighting and it’s part of the game and we just got to learn from that.
“I think that hurt (Smiley) a little bit. We got good open looks but couldn’t make shots. It changed us because we couldn’t go inside and weren’t looking inside as much against the zone,” he continued. “We just got to do a better job of executing against a zone because it won’t be the last time we see it.”
With Arnold returning to the game in the fourth quarter, the Tigers made some runs to push for a late comeback. The senior guard scored 16 points in the fourth quarter alone, including knocking down a pull-up 3-pointer to get his team within eight midway through the quarter.
Ramelle Arnold gets the Tigers within eight with just under 4 mins left in the 4th Q. pic.twitter.com/no5QxYynBm
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) February 6, 2021
Senior guard Jaden Hameed also had a big quarter, scoring 14 points and knocking down three 3-pointers as well. The two guards were able to cut the lead down to five with under one minute left, but turnovers and missed opportunities proved to be too much to overcome for Swift and his team.
“We dug ourselves in a deep, deep hole and Shaker took advantage,” Swift said. ‘Even though we tried to make a run at the end, they did what they had to do to keep the lead and my hat goes off to them.”
For Warrensville, Smiley, Hameed and Arnold finished with 22, 24 and 20 points respectively, combining for 66 of the team’s 72 points.
For the Raiders, Daniel Young led the way with 27 points followed by Kellon Smith, Cody Head and Jahdae Walker all scoring double-digit points as well.
All night long, Walker found himself on the floor fighting for loose balls and making impact plays to lead to transition points. That’s what he prides himself on, even if it’s doing the little things that don’t end up in the stat sheet.
“I just pride in rebounding and that just sparks us, giving us second and third opportunities on offense,” Jahdae Walker said. “That’s the little things that count for wins.”
