Girls basketball: Keystone handles Cuyahoga Heights and holiday distractions, improves to 10-0

LAGRANGE — Playing a game over a long holiday break is always challenging, especially when you bring in a one-loss team, but Keystone has its sights on a third Lorain County League championship and that preparation starts now. "I told these girls this is the toughest game to play when you're on a holiday break and you have Christmas and New Year's coming up. Focusing on basketball and having that energy and that excitement and that effort, it's hard," Keystone coach Rocky Houston said. "But we know what our schedule looks like come January and we know if you take 11 days off and you don't play, it can be a train wreck to start the year off, so we knew how important this game was." The Wildcats took that to heart, fighting through the holiday fatigue to beat Cuyahoga Heights 40-28 Thursday to improve to 10-0 with the heart of the LCL schedule looming. "Obviously, we still have practices and stuff, but you just don't get up and you don't go do this, you don't go do that, you don't wake up early, you don't go to school, you're not active all day, so we did definitely have to put in some extra effort and get our heads right from not doing much today and then coming in and competing against a tough team," Keystone point guard Helayna Houston said. That extra effort paid off. The Wildcats entered the game with a defense that has been solid all year, allowing 26.7 points per game through nine games. Cuyahoga Heights (7-2), however, has a dynamic offense with several shooters that can pour it on, and the Red Wolves averaged nearly 48 points per game heading into their matchup with Keystone. But the Wildcats kept the pressure on all game, using a man-to-man defense they haven't been able to run as much in recent years, and that defense turned to offense as their lead stretched to as many as 16 points near the end of the third quarter. "We set our tone defensively and we have the ability now that we have the depth, we can play defense and if we get in foul trouble, we've got somebody we can put in," Rocky Houston said. "In the past, we didn't play anywhere near as much man (defense) because it's easier to get in foul trouble and when you get in foul trouble, you've got to go to your bench and it hurts you. Now, we've got seven girls we can rotate in and we're comfortable with those girls getting in the game and playing. "It just was one of those nights where defense was the key, which I told the girls before the game it was going to be key, and they were fantastic. I told them it was probably the best defensive performance they had on the year." For as many positives as there were to be taken from the win, there was arguably an even bigger lesson to be learned about getting too comfortable — a lesson better learned now than next week when Keystone travels to second-place Columbia. The Wildcats went on a four-minute scoring drought as the Red Wolves got within seven points with 3:55 left in regulation, and while their defense held on in this case, they know they won't always be so lucky. "The fourth quarter was a little bit rough, but I think in our heads, we were up and our shots were falling and we were rebounding and we were getting up, so I think we all just kind of thought we could keep doing those things, like we could kind of lay back just a little bit and take a few breaths, but obviously that wasn't the case," Helayna Houston said. "(Cuyahoga Heights) worked just as hard as we did and they competed a lot, and us backing off a little bit, we couldn't do that. We had to pick our stuff back up and continue playing strong." And Keystone is ready to keep playing strong, too. "We have a few tough teams coming up in our conference between Columbia, Firelands and Wellington," Helayna Houston said. "Those are all going to be great competitions, great games to watch, so I think having a competitive game right before we go into playing those three teams kind of gets us in the groove to playing fast and playing competitively and being able to compete all four quarters because that's what we're going to have to do for those three games." Contact Marissa McNees at ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow her on X @MarissaNM. Keystone 40, Cuyahoga Heights 28 CUYAHOGA HEIGHTS (7-2): Arushi Shinde 0-0-0, Alex Williams 0-0-0, Ava Galek 4-2-12, Julia Jaenke 2-4-9, Addison Bohning 1-0-3, Amari Rodriguez 0-0-0, Reece Frank 0-0-0, Mariama Hopkins 0-0-0, Marissa Ulery 0-0-0, Sophia Winslow 0-0-0, Lauryn Wilson 2-0-4. Totals 9-6-28.KEYSTONE (10-0): Helayna Houston 5-3-13, Rylee Jedrzejek 2-0-5, Kendal Crabeels 0-0-0, Brooklyn Barber 2-0-5, Hayden Graham 0-0-0, Jessica Forthofer 3-2-8, Mia Stefan 0-0-0, Madyson Sokolowski 2-0-5, Vivian Cassell 2-0-4. Totals 16-5-40. Cuyahoga Hts.&emsp;5&emsp; 7&emsp; 7&emsp;9&emsp;—&emsp;28Keystone&emsp; 7&emsp;15&emsp;11&emsp;7&emsp;—&emsp;40 Three-point goals: Cuyahoga Heights 4-17 (24 percent), Keystone 3-11 (27 percent). Field goals: Cuyahoga Heights 9-37 (24 percent), Keystone 16-38 (42 percent). Free throws: Cuyahoga Heights 6-12 (50 percent), Keystone 5-9 (56 percent). Rebounds: Cuyahoga Heights 25 (Frank 5, Wilson 5), Keystone 32 (Forthofer 11). Total fouls: Cuyahoga Heights 11, Keystone 10. Junior varsity: Keystone, 17-11