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SOLON, Ohio–Solon might have gotten a little too comfortable at times throughout the second half. After leading by more than 20 points, Twinsburg cut it close, but the Comets were able to secure a 66-58 win.
“We’ve done it a couple of times where we get a lead that should be comfortable, 18, 20, 22 points, and then we take our foot off and relax,” Solon head coach Tony DeCesare said. “Good news is it’s not the tournament and we didn’t lose. We don’t have a lot of time to fix it.”
Deon Miller and Rayquan Thompson carried the Comets in the fourth quarter to stop the Tigers from getting any more momentum late in the game.
The two of them finished with 21 points and 17 points respectively, pacing the Comet offense.
The first half was dominated by Solon. They knew how to maintain a lead and once the Comets were able to secure a couple of turnovers, they thrived in capitalizing on the Twinsburg miscues. It started in the opening quarter with senior guard Deon Miller. He had 11 points in the first quarter as he nearly outscored the Tigers himself.
“His first quarter was outstanding…I don’t think he missed a shot,” DeCesare said about Miller’s first-quarter performance. “He’s really, really having a good season for us and we need to do a better job getting him more looks.”
The Solon lead was 19-12 after the first quarter. That’s when other guys started to make some big-time plays. Rayquan Thompson had 12 points in the first half and he helped kickstart a 13-2 three-minute run to really open the game up before the half.
Solon was able to take a double-digit lead for most of the remaining minutes in the half as Twinsburg wasn’t able to get clean looks offensively. The Comets used a patient offense that allowed them to get easy baskets down low and with that, took a commanding 37-23 lead at halftime—outscoring Twinsburg 18-11 in the second quarter.
“I think we’re doing a lot of good things offensively, we’re executing pretty well, getting guys the right shots and I think when we get tired, we stop moving the ball and we get into that habit of I’m going to take my guy and everyone else stands around,” DeCesare said. “I think that kind of caught up to us in the second half.”
A 20-point lead swiftly started to fade throughout the fourth quarter. In fact, the Comets scored just two points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter and their lead was just 13 points.
Reggie Bussey and David Coniglio helped spark a 13-4 run in six minutes, getting within 10 points with under two minutes left. They ended up getting down by eight points, but it was too late for a comeback attempt as not enough stops were made by the Tigers.
Bussey finished with a team-high 23 points during the loss. Anthony McCarthy added 18 points along with 12 from Coniglio. The three of them combined to score 53 of the team’s 58 points Tuesday night.
“We’re like most high school teams, when we score we guard really well and when we don’t, we don’t,” DeCesare said.
“We’ve done a good job of getting those comfortable leads, we just have to do a better job of keeping them.”
The Comets close out the regular season on the road against Mentor Friday night.
