Boys basketball: Avon powers past Westlake in second half to win

WESTLAKE — Avon needed a little time to knock off the rust after having five days off before Wednesday's non-conference game at Westlake. But once they got going, the Eagles pushed the tempo in transition and never looked back. Thanks to 32 second-half points, many of which came on fastbreaks after limiting the Demons to one-and-done possessions, the Eagles turned an eight-point lead at halftime into a 57-34 victory at the Westlake Sports Center. It was Avon's fourth win in five games on the road. "We preach defense," Avon coach Mike Fitch said. "We've been doing pretty good on defense. The first half, we did really good on defense, but we couldn't score. We missed a lot of bunnies. We said, 'law of averages.' I'm a math dude. I said, 'The law of averages, they're going to go in.' We went off and made, I think, the first four baskets and got us on a roll. "We talk about getting those stops, and then, pushing the ball in transition. We've been working on that. We've been a little selfish in transition, so we've been working on sharing it early, getting rid of it, and that's what we talked about in the locker room at halftime." Avon senior guard Zane Austin opened the second half with a layup after a give-and-go with fellow senior guard Paul Leftrict. On the next trip down the floor, Leftrict received a pass from Tyson Ziegler and drove in for a layup. Leftrict picked up an assist on Avon's next basket when Austin scored on a driving layup that extended the Eagles' lead to 14 points, 31-17, with 6:37 to play in the third quarter. "We've got a lot of guys who can score on this team," Ziegler said. "I think we're all unselfish, so after a defensive rebound, we push in transition and don't care who gets the basket, who gets the assist. We just want to get that layup." The Avon (5-2) scoring run forced Westlake to call a 30-second timeout, but the respite did little to help the Demons (5-3) get back into the game. After the brief break, Westlake committed turnovers on two of its next three possessions. Those lost opportunities were compounded by the fact that Westlake made only 3 of 10 shots, missed all three attempts from three-point range and had three turnovers in the third quarter. "I didn't feel like we had that bad of looks," Westlake coach Luke Harris said. "I thought we had pretty decent looks. We've been shooting really well all year, and this was where everything came back and regressed to the mean a little bit. It all hit at once, unfortunately, but I was pretty happy with the execution, offensively. They just weren't falling. "When you're not hitting on the offensive end, they get easy transition looks. If we make our baskets, they can't get in transition and we're in good shape. We're a really good half-court defensive team. We do a good job communicating, but the second we start missing on the offensive end, it seems to affect our defense. You saw it tonight a lot." In order to push the ball in transition, the Eagles first had to secure defensive rebounds and forwards Sam Toniolo and Joe Griffiths proved up to the task. Toniolo (seven) and Griffiths (six) combined for 13 of Avon's 49 rebounds. Their work in the paint helped the Eagles build a 12-rebound advantage over the Demons for the game. "We've got two guys where we tell them, 'your job is to go get rebounds,'" Fitch said. "Joey and Sam, they've bought into it. I think Sam got four on one possession after missing a couple and tipping it out. There's no frustration. That's what those two focus on and that's huge. The extra points they don't get credit for we know as a team when they get them." Following the victory, the Eagles get back into Southwestern Conference play against Olmsted Falls at home Saturday. Then, they go on the road for three of their next four games, starting with a trip to Berea-Midpark on Jan. 9. "Today was our first day back at school," Fitch said. "It's kind of weird with a game on Wednesday. You wake up early, and you're not used to waking up early, so I was worried about it. We've got Falls on Saturday and then we just roll from there into tough conference play." Contact Matt Florjancic at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.