ELYRIA — Brett Larrick was proud of his team’s effort Thursday night.
No, Elyria didn’t beat Garfield Heights, one of Northeast Ohio’s top-rated teams. No, it didn’t play very well at times early on.
But the Pioneers challenged the Bulldogs with a great fourth-quarter rally and sent them home with plenty to think about in a 65-62 cliffhanger.
Garfield improved to 9-4 overall and 4-1 in the Northeast Ohio Conference Valley Division. Elyria fell to 6-7, 1-4. The game was a makeup for a matchup that was snowed out Jan. 8.
“That’s the hardest we’ve battled and fought in two years,” said Larrick, who is in his second year as head coach. “I don’t like moral victories. I told these guys I’m very proud of the way they bounced back after the last two efforts (losses to Brunswick and Southview) but I told them don’t be satisfied.
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“We’re not happy with the outcome. We were happy with our effort and our toughness and how hard we fought. That was a different level we played at.”
Elyria was down 60-43 at the outset of the final quarter following a 3-pointer by Terrill Byrd. The Pioneers battled all the way back and had a chance to tie if Mike Russelle’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer had gone in instead of rimming out.
“We have a young team,” Garfield coach Sonny Johnson said. “I think we may have gotten a little lackadaisical at the end of the game. I think we got a little confident with the lead. Brett’s doing a great job with his team. They fought to the very last end.”
One player who never said die was 6-foot-5 junior Chase Farris, undoubtedly the inspirational leader of the Pioneers. Farris, after a tough shooting night at Southview on Tuesday, made seven of his eight shots against Garfield and got to the foul line three times. He finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
“You have to find something deep inside of you,” Farris said. “You have to play with heart. We all decided to play. We came up short but we’ll work on that.
“Last game everyone backed off, but this game I tried to get everybody to speed up and put pressure on (Garfield’s) guards.”
Farris wasn’t alone. Seniors Will Rudolph and Mike Cannon came alive in the final quarter to nearly pull out the game. Rudolph tied Farris in points and rebounds — getting seven of his points and four of his boards in the final quarter. Cannon, who has shown flashes of his ability from time to time, came on strong with seven of his 12 points over the last eight minutes.
“Chase plays as hard as I have ever seen anybody play,” Larrick said. “Guys feed off that. He’s a junior playing with some seniors out there. I told him, ‘If nobody else is going to get us to play hard, you have to.’ He battled on the boards, keeping balls alive, defensively. I would take someone that plays that hard every night.
“Mike Cannon did a nice job against pressure the whole game. He took care of the ball. He battled defensively. He played strong, aggressive and he was confident going to the basket. We need him to be that aggressive.”
Larrick tried his best, switching defenses as the game wore on. Sophomore Mike Davis and junior Trey Lewis feasted from the outside for the Bulldogs. Davis scored 12 points in the second quarter and had 22 through three, but didn’t get a single point over the final eight minutes and missed a crucial front end of a one-and-one with 39 seconds left.
Lewis finished with 17, but had just three in the final quarter. Farris and Rudolph, who is 6-6, did a good job shutting out 6-6 junior Will Weeks inside. Weeks came in averaging 17 points a game.
“I think we used four different half-court defenses,” Larrick said. “Two or three different full court. I think we only missed one or two where we didn’t communicate what we were in. We did an amazing job for how many times we switched up. We had to. We wanted to have them shoot from outside and (Davis and Lewis) did a great job.”
Elyria won the board battle, 36-30, in spite of Garfield’s size. The Bulldogs started three players — Weeks, Tony Farmer and Mike McQueen — who were 6-6 along with 6-9 sophomore Jermaine Davis.
The Pioneers turned the ball over 25 times but only three came in the final quarter.
Garfield Heights 65, Elyria 62
GARFIELD (65): Tony Farmer 1-2-4, Trey Lewis 6-1-17, Mike McQueen 3-0-6, Will Weeks 0-0-0, Jermaine Davis 0-1-1, Ricardo Chapman 1-0-2, Mike Davis 9-0-22, Terrill Byrd 3-2-10, Reggie Taylor 0-0-0, Marquis Johnson 1-0-3, Kenny Simpson 0-0-0. Totals 24-6-65.
ELYRIA (62): Will Rudolph 7-0-15, Mike Cannon 5-1-12, Mike Russelle 2-1-6, Matt Velazquez 1-0-2, Chase Farris 7-1-15, Maurice Woods 1-0-2. Devin Swidecki 0-0-0, Zach Zinimon 0-4-4, Kody Bender 2-0-6, Cecil Shelton 0-0-0. Totals 25-7-62.
Garfield 18 22 17 8 — 65
Elyria 13 17 13 19 — 62
Three-point goals: Garfield 11-20 (Lewis 4, Davis 4, Byrd 2, Jackson), Elyria 5-12 (Bender 2, Rudolph, Cannon, Russelle). Field goals: Garfield 24-53 (45 percent), Elyria 25-51 (49 percent). Free throws: Garfield 6-11 (59 percent), Elyria 7-12 (58 percent). Rebounds: Garfield 30 (McQueen 6), Elyria 36 (Farris, Rudolph 12). Turnovers: Garfield 18, Elyria 25. Fouls: Garfield 12, Elyria 15. Fouled Out: None. Junior Varsity: Garfield 52-44.
Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7136 or at ctsports@chroniclet.com.
