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LAKEWOOD, Ohio– Coming into Tuesday night’s game, Eric Flannery knew this game against Brush would be a battle.
And it sure was.
Senior guard Michael Bova lead the Eagle offense in scoring with 18 points to help pull off a 58-54 come-from-behind-win against the previously unbeaten Brush Arcs.
“We knew coming in that if we wanted to win, we needed to grind it out,” Flannery said. “We didn’t shoot the ball extremely well at home, we got out-rebounded because of their size. Despite all that, we found a way.”
With Bova leading the way in scoring, a slew of other Eagle players stepped up during the win with big baskets late down the stretch.
Junior forward Danny Lavelle was able to get around the defense for an easy layup to put the Eagles up 56-51 with 56 seconds left in the game.
Playing from behind all game, Flannery used nearly double the number of substitutions Chet Mason made for his team, helping keep fresh legs churning as his rotations helped keep his team fresh late and prepared for the late-game moments.
“I told our guys tonight was about mental toughness and I thought (our guys fought through it),” Flannery said.
“Obviously we don’t have the biggest team but our goal was to kind of get out and run from the beginning,” Bova said. “In the first half they kind of slowed us down and in the second half, we kind of got them on defense and it led to transition points.”
Brush, playing without 6-foot-6 junior Marlon Barnes—started the game out fast, securing an early lead that would stand for most of the first half. Senior guard Trace Bishko, alongside big men Tyler Williams and Antwone Woolfolk were able to take command of the offense. Bishko connected on two 3-pointers during the first half, pacing the offense with 8 points.
Williams and Woolfolk were able to provide damage inside the paint, garnering rebounds which created plenty of second-chance points for the Arcs. Their lead got as high as 10 points but Michael Bova and the Eagles ended the first half on a high note.
In fact, in the final six minutes of the first half, the Eagles outscored the Arcs 16-6, tying the game at 25 heading into halftime.
“It was really important because they were doing a really good job defensively of slowing us down, taking Michael away and they were controlling the pace,” Flannery said about ending the first half on a big run, carrying momentum towards the second half.
“I was ok with it for a while because I didn’t think we had the legs to run as much as we typically want to so I felt like we just needed to buy some possessions and we were OK playing slow but we needed to speed it up in order to win this game and I thought we did it in spurts tonight just enough to pull off the win.”
The second half is when the Eagles would establish their offense where they held a lead for the majority of the half. Players like Myles Reynolds and Danny Lavelle alongside Bova challenged the Arcs, especially inside the paint.
They struggled to capitalize and lost the turnover battle 14-5 for the game, something Chet Mason believes was the main reason why they weren’t able to close it out in the end.
“We can’t turn the ball over against a really good team and a really good coach,” Mason said. “We’re going to harp on that and the good thing is we turn it around and got another game.”
St. Edward was able to maintain a lead all throughout the fourth quarter. Their lead got as high as five points twice, with the Arcs failing to get the necessary stops needed in crunch time.
For Brush, five players scored during the loss, with Elmore James, Trace Bishko and Antwone Woolfolk pacing the offense with 15, 14 and 13 points respectively.
“Of course again we wanted to win, but to lose a game that you learned something from is not really a loss,” Mason said.
