Boys basketball: Elyria's depth could lead to a deep tournament run

Xavier Church might have said it best Friday night after Elyria sewed up the Southwestern Conference championship with an 81-72 win at Berea-Midpark. "We're the deepest team in the conference," he said. He might be right. Brett Larrick, in his 16th year as Elyria's coach, hasn't hesitated going to his bench early and often this season. It's resulted in 16 wins — 13 since the Christmas break. Will that lead to a deep run in the tournament? The Pioneers were 3-4 after being humbled 58-34 by Columbus Bishop Ready at the GlenOak Wishes Can Happen tournament at the end of December. Elyria is 13-2 since. Wishes really can happen. Friday the Pioneers won their first outright conference championship since 1978 and its first conference title of any kind since it tied Mentor for the Greater Cleveland Conference championship in 2017. Larrick, who won his 200th game as Elyria's coach last week against Lorain, sees a lot of similarities to that team, which was Elyria's last to make it to the Sweet 16. "They were a little bit bigger," Larrick said of the players on the 2017 team. "The interchangeable parts and different guys stepping up at different times is the same. We had Tone Brown come in yesterday to talk to our guys. He said it was a similar situation that they were in that we're in. They had to fight in every game, lots of close games." Elyria had some height in 2017. Justin Koepp, Darquan Woods and Josh Lotko were all 6-foot-5 or taller. Dez Brown was an experienced point guard. Antonio Blanton and Brown were good outside shooters. Mike Oliver was a dependable backup guard while Deviian Williams and Donte Beckett came off the bench. Brown averaged only six points on that team but once scored 20 in a blowout win over Sandusky in the old Lorain County Holiday Classic. Ironically, Blanton was that team's leading scorer, averaging 17.4 per game. His younger brother, Taylor, is a junior and averages double figures this year. "All the time, all the time," Taylor Blanton said when asked if he and his brother compare notes on the teams. "I'm not going to say our class could have beat them. I tell him, 'Bro, we are playing good right now.' I have confidence in our team. 2017 was the last time (winning conference and district). We're trying to get on that banner. That's something we'll always be able to look back on." "This group kind of has their own I.D.," Larrick said. "Thirteen guys have been in this locker room all year. Thirteen guys have done it together. It started last spring — putting the work in, sacrificing in the weight room, 6 a.m. shooting. We have a lot of guys who show up to shoot. It's nice to see them rewarded for their hard work." The team's leading scorer, Jayden Crutcher, has already set the single season (82) and career (197) 3-point record for Elyria High. He's just three points shy of becoming the 10th Pioneer to reach 1,000 career points. He'll join his dad, Nate, and his brother, Dorian, with some elite numbers. Nate had 933 career points at Elyria West. Dorian graduated from Elyria Catholic as the all-time career leader with 1,287 points. "I've looked at the books," said Crutcher when asked about his dad and brother. "They remind me of it all the time. (My dad) doesn't talk about it that much because he misses it, of course. He just wants me to have my time. We've talked about how he hooped and how good he was. We talk about it all the time. "He tells me I need to get inside more. I just love the 3-ball. My brother was definitely more aggressive. It'll all come together eventually." The Pioneers lost a regional semifinal heartbreaker in 2017, falling 48-47 to Toledo St. John's on a controversial no-call at the end of the game. Antonio Blanton was driving to the basket and appeared to be hacked on his way up but the officials swallowed their whistles and ran off the court leaving the Pioneers and Larrick to wonder what might have been. The 2017 group scratched and clawed its way to a number of comeback wins. It beat Medina, Strongsville and Elyria Catholic on last-second shots. It won at Solon in overtime to clinch the conference tie. It beat Olmsted Falls by one in the first round of the district and upset top-seeded Lorain in the district final before the loss in Toledo. The Pioneers finished the year 21-5 and were 11-3 in league play. This year's team also finished 11-3 in the league. Can this year's team reach that same level? "It's a good group," Larrick said. "You love groups that put the work in. They pay attention to details. They've taken to the scouting reports. They've taken to the process that we've done. How we do things. How we prepare. It's nice to see when that work pays off." Larrick used 11 players to beat the Titans on Friday and they all contributed in some way. It may have been a subtle way for the Pioneers to wear down Berea-Midpark. Elyria shot the ball much better, making 58 percent of its 45 field goal attempts, including going 8-of-15 from 3-point range. Berea-Midpark made 27-of-57 (47 percent) and only five of 18 3-pointers. Tired legs? Maybe. Elyria's starters have been Crutcher, Church, Taylor Blanton, B.J. Todd and Jermiah Daniels. Larrick has rotated Cam Bell, Laron Anderson-Oliver, Darrion Crawford, Nicolas Rogers, Rondell Grimmett and Pierre Alston in and out of the lineup throughout the second half of the season. Rogers, Grimmett and Alston play a couple quarters of the junior varsity game to stay tuned up and ready. They've been called on for valuable minutes to give the main eight-man rotation some rest or if anyone gets in foul trouble. "We've been picking up the JV squad this whole season," Church saud. "They all know how to play varsity basketball. They all know what role they've got to play when they're in the game. It's really all about that." Keenan Williams, a former Pioneers point guard, is the junior varsity coach. He runs the same offensive and defensive schemes as Larrick. His team rolled over Berea-Midpark 69-36 Friday to avenge an earlier 60-58 loss. Elyria's junior varsity was 15-5 this year. "Our JVs, they give us battles every day," Larrick said. "Keenen knows exactly what he has, what we need, what we want, what we have to go against. It's really important. He's been there since last spring and everything we meet about. It takes all of us to achieve what we want to achieve — our freshmen all the way to our varsity." Larrick's staff has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Dan Gundert came over from Wellington after a successful stint as a head coach. The others — Williams, Austin Pinkston, Dr. Jon Cooper, Joseph Hunt and Blake "Bo" Furcron — offer various skills valuable to the team. "It's a great mix," Larrick said. "Dan coming over two years ago. Austin's been here a few years. Keenen, Coop from the beginning. Bo coming over, who played, and Joseph. It's helped more in our group work where they can take different groups and we can do different things with different relationships. That's helped a ton. I can't tell you how much those guys have helped me." "It's like somebody's writing a book right now," Church said. "I'm just waiting to see how it ends." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.