Boys basketball: Brookside pressure wilts Wickliffe in season opener at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

CLEVELAND — Defense looks to be Brookside's calling card. The Cardinals pressured Wickliffe into 24 turnovers, including 11 in the third quarter when they broke the game open on the way to a 63-40 season-opening win at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday. "We couldn't get our shot going in the first half," said Brookside forward Jaycob Kolleda, who led all rebounders with seven and added six points. "We leaned on defense, had to play inside. Our defense is what makes us win." The Cardinals got off to a slow start, trailing 7-0 in the first quarter before slowly chipping away until they took their first lead at 13-12. The teams exchanged the lead six times in the second quarter when Brookside forced Wickliffe into eight turnovers, but turned the ball over 10 times itself. Everyone on the varsity roster — and then some — saw meaningful minutes as Brookside coach Larry Babics routinely substituted five players throughout the game. "We run hockey shifts, and that's not just this game because we got to play in Cleveland, that's how we have to play," said Babics, who was making his debut for Brookside after coaching at Columbia for 15 years, six with the girls and then going 134-81 with the boys the last nine seasons. "We're not big and we don't have a bunch of superstars. We're a team that has to pick each other up and tonight a bunch of different guys stepped up. I'm really proud of all 12 of them." Freshman Nolan Waechter jump-started Brookside in the third quarter, connecting on a 3-pointer right out of the gate that sparked a 20-6 run. He punctuated that run with back-to-back threes, going perfect from the field in his varsity debut. He was one of two freshmen to score their first varsity points at the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jayden Nazario was the other, finishing with five points. "It was fun, really fun," Waechter said. "I hit the second one and people really started going wild. When I hit the third one, it was something I never felt before, it was awesome. Our defense stepped it up so much better than in the first half. It was just a lot better in the first quarter." Avery Young closed the third with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer set up by a Wickliffe turnover. With Brookside leading 55-31 — and the arena crunched to get cleared in time for the Cavs' tip-off against Orlando — the fourth quarter was played with a running clock. "It was fun," Kolleda said of playing on the Cavs floor. "It was bright, I wasn't expecting that. It was overall a good feeling, a good way to start to the season and a way to get us hyped." The Brookside girls also played Wickliffe right before the boys game, but fell to 0-3 with a 51-49 loss. The Cardinals rallied from an eight-point deficit with less than a minute to play. Shyanne Shinsky hit a three to cut the score to 51-49 and Wickliffe missed the front end of a one-and-one to give the Cardinals a shot, but they turned it over trying to pass through the Blue Devils press. Shinsky led the Cardinals with 19 points. Haley Trowbridge and Savanah Walls each had 12. Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on Twitter. Brookside 63, Wickliffe 40 WICKLIFFE (40): Brent Murphy 4-0-9, Shawn Derganc 1-1-3, Shane Adamski 1-0-2, Owen Malaney 2-0-5, Michael Culp 1-4-7, Zach Beal 1-0-2. Luke Beal 1-0-2, Greg Kita 0-0-0, A.J. Levon 0-2-2, Austin Franklin 4-0-8. Totals 15-7-40.BROOKSIDE (63): Zion Young 2-0-4, Avery Young 2-6-11, Jaycob Kolleda 2-2-6, Aiden McLaughlin 4-2-11, Jayden Nazario 1-2-5, Nolan Waechter 3-0-9, Jake Montgomery 0-2-2, Shalom Simpson 3-0-6, Marcus Frazier 1-4-6, Kenny Grobolsek 1-0-3, Anthony Robinson 0-0-0, Dominic Lundberg 0-0-0. Totals 19-18-63.Wickliffe&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp; 9&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;40Brookside&emsp;&emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;20&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;—&emsp;&emsp;63Three-point goals: Wickliffe 3-13 (Culp, Malaney, Murphy), Brookside 7-24 (Waechter 3, Grobolsek, McLaughlin, Nazario, Avery Young). Field goals: Wickliffe 15-34 (44 percent), Brookside 19-52 (37 percent). Free throws: Wickliffe 7-12 (58 percent), Brookside 18-31 (58 percent). Rebounds: Wickliffe 17 (Malaney 5), Brookside 31 (Kolleda 7). Total fouls: Wickliffe 22, Brookside 14. Fouled out: Derganc. Turnovers: Wickliffe 24, Brookside 17.