High School Hoops: Walsh Defeats Cuyahoga Falls

Cuyahoga Falls boys basketball coach Rob Slone refused to cry foul after a 69-60 home loss to Walsh Jesuit on Tuesday night.

Many Black Tigers fans were upset that the home team went to the foul line only 14 times as opposed to the 43 chances given the Warriors.

"That's our fault," Slone said. "The way we play makes me get on the officials to try and get a call. We don't attack the basket. They did, and they got the calls."

Walsh Jesuit junior Evan Payne especially drew calls. He scored 28 points on a variety of drives to the basket. Sometimes his shots went in; other times he went to the foul line and converted.

"He's a very good player and they are a good team," Slone said. "We knew that coming in, but we were right there with them into the fourth quarter."

"Quite honestly, I'm tired of talking about it with this team. We've been down this road before. We work too hard to be 3-8, but it is also about the way we work and where we work, too. It isn't that we don't play hard. This team plays as hard as any I've had in 18 years coaching here, but we just don't have that killer instinct. We should be playing as hard at the offensive end as we do on defense."

Cory Asbury led the Black Tigers with 18 points, but 12 of them came on four 3-pointers. While Slone was delighted with Asbury's long-range accuracy, he wishes his entire team would drive to the basket more and perhaps pick up some free throws, too.

"We had it to a three-point game and I called time," Slone said. "I told them the importance of driving the ball. We went out and pump-faked their defender into the air. But instead of going forward, we sidestepped and took the long jumper anyway. We did it three times. The boys have got to develop some better basketball sense."

Payne scored 11 points on free throws for the Warriors (10-1), more than the Black Tigers (3-8) made overall. Cuyahoga Falls went 10-for-14 from the foul line and Walsh Jesuit sank 24 of 43 free throws.

"I could care less about their record," Warriors coach John Norris said. "Any team on any night, at their home can play tough. We knew coming in we were in for a tough game."

"We did some nice things, made some nice passes, and played good basketball when it counted. It was a good win against a very competitive team," he added.

Norris was not as pleased early in the third quarter, when the Warriors fell behind 29-26 after yielding a series of fastbreak layups.

"We did not do a good enough job of pressuring them or handling their pressure at that point," Norris said. "They were able to attack us with pressure. We gave up too many easy baskets."

Slone made a couple of adjustments at halftime that helped the Black Tigers beat the Warriors' half-court set.

"They were allowing one of our players to get open down the middle, so we put another out on the wing and they couldn't cover both," Slone said. "It gave us a little spark. The big thing was, we were aggressive. Then we stopped going to the basket."

Walsh Jesuit, however, responded to Norris' pleas. He called a timeout and expressed his displeasure after falling behind in the third quarter. Then Payne and the Warriors went out and began attacking the basket.

"Most importantly, we started to rebound the ball," he said. "You can get your offense going when you limit them to one shot and come back with the ball."

Cuyahoga Falls bolted to a 17-11 lead as Payne went to the bench with two early fouls. When he came back into the game, the Warriors went on a 15-2 run to lead, 26-19.

The Black Tigers scored the final five points of the second quarter and trailed at halftime 26-24, then came out and scored the first five points of the second half for a 29-26 lead.

Both teams began to run and gun Walsh Jesuit after three quarters 48-46. The final points of the quarter came on a spinning reverse dunk by Payne to finish a fast break.

Ashbury's fourth 3-pointer gave the Black Tigers a 53-52 lead. Sophomore K.C. Meyer countered with a three with 5:30 to play to put the Warriors up, 55-53, and Walsh Jesuit never trailed again.

Slone liked Ashbury's shooting.

"He's come out of his shell a bit," Slone said. "I think he has gained confidence. More importantly, I think he has learned that I have confidence in him."

Cuyahoga Falls got balanced scoring behind Ashbury. Alex Overfield scored 12, Tim Bridenthal and Kyle Rospert had eight apiece; Ryan Yesberger and Sam Miihlbach five each and Devin Speicher and Drew Gardner each had two points.

Earlier, Tyler Woods scored 15 points including two free throws with seven-tenths of a second remaining, to lead Cuyahoga Falls' JV team to a 48-45 win. Jacob Slone, freshman son of the varsity coach, chipped in 13 points. David Croft's 11 points led the Walsh Jesuit JVs.