Somebody forgot to notice that the calendar was on the first week of January and not the last week of February.
When undefeated St. Vincent-St. Mary traveled from Akron to face 9-1 Avon Lake Jan. 3 in a non-conference girls basketball matchup, it was more like a district championship game or even a regjonal game than a regular-season outing played just after the holidays.
In many ways the teams mirrored each other. Both played extremely hard on both ends of the floor, but they know their bread and butter is defense. The game was physical, the crowd was vocal and intense, and the Irish used a 14-2 run that straddled the third and fourth quarters to head back south with a hard-fought 39-33 victory. St. Vincent-St. Mary improved to 9-0, while Avon Lake fell to 9-2.
“It was high-level competition,” said Avon Lake coach Paul Appel. “It was a battle. I thought the girls played really hard. It was a fun game to be a part of.”
As one of the top Division II teams in the state, St. Vincent-St. Mary has blown its way through its early schedule, winning the first eight games by an average score of 59-27. Trailing Avon Lake by a point at halftime and having to battle the hosts to the very end was a welcome development for the Irish.
“It was a great game,” said Coach Carley Whitney. “My hat’s off to Avon Lake. Paul has done a great job with that program. We definitely got better today.”
The first half of the game was tightly contested, with neither team leading by more than three points. Avon Lake held a 19-18 lead, and then the advantage jumped to 22-18 when Izzie Polinko hit a 3-pointer 30 seconds into the third quarter. Polinko led the Shoremen with 11 points, while Bre Jones added nine.
The four-point lead was short-lived, as Avon Lake failed to score for the next 5:31 in the game while the Irish ran off eight consecutive points, with matchup nightmare Malania Cornute scoring all eight. The freshman guard also scored five points in the final 1:13 of the first quarter and led St- Vincent-St. Mary with 14 points.
The Irish started five guards and then brought Cornute off the bench. Avon Lake was hoping to take advantage of its superior size, but nobody could contain Cornute.
“She’s good, and it wasn’t a good matchup for us,” Appel said. “It was hard, because we wanted to play our bigs, and that forced a big to guard her. She’s really good. She did a good job of getting to the basket and being physical. We made some switches late in the game to slow her down, but she had a really good stretch in the first half and a really good stretch in the second half.”
St. Vincent-St. Mary continued to shut down Avon Lake, holding the Shoremen to just four points in the third quarter while forcing 10 of their 15 turnovers in the second half. For much of the third quarter, Avon Lake had trouble making a simple entry pass to engage the offense.
“They did a really good job of pressuring us,” Appel said. “They have really good individual defenders, and it makes it really hard. There are some things I could have done better, and there were some moments where we have to be a little bit stronger with the ball when we get to the basket. But it’s tough when they have that many good defenders.”
The margin got as big as eight, 32-24 with 6:54 to play, before Avon Lake fought its way back into the game. With Marisa Summerfield hitting consecutive layups 30 seconds apart and Polinko and Jones combining to hit 5 of 6 free throws, the Shoremen cut the margin to one, 34-33, with 3:20 to play. However, Avon Lake was unable to score the rest of the way and the Irish salted the game away by hitting 3 of 4 free throws in the final 30 seconds.
“I thought the game was a tale of two halves, especially defensively,” Whitney said. “Props to Avon Lake. I thought they did a good job of disrupting what we normally do. At halftime we had to make a couple defensive adjustments just to get back to what we do. As the season goes on and the bullseye gets bigger, it’s good to feel that kind of stuff.”
The game turned out to be an ideal non-conference matchup in that St. Vincent-St. Mary finally got to gain the experience of playing in a tight game, and Avon Lake got to face a team that does a lot of what the Shoremen do, only better.
“(This was) a great learning opportunity,” Appel said. “We had the opportunity to play one of the best teams in the Cleveland area, and we can keep building from it. You get better by playing good teams. You don’t get better by not playing great teams.”
The next game for Avon Lake is a Southwestern Conference matchup Jan. 5 at Amherst.
