Boys basketball: Area teams taking on tough challenges during holiday tourney time

Some of the area's top basketball teams will be giving their fans one more gift this holiday season when they take the court in a number of showcases and tournaments around the area this week. The highlight of the weekend will be Saturday when Elyria (5-2) travels to Canton McKinley to take on 6-1 Cardinal Mooney in the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Shot Clock Shootout. The three-day event is the only showcase in Ohio authorized by the Ohio High School Athletic Association to play with a 35-second shot clock that has been approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the national governing body for high school sports but has yet to be officially adopted by the OHSAA. The Pioneers game will be broadcast on the Rock Entertainment Sports Network, which is available over the air on channel 22.1 or for Spectrum subscribers on channel 979. Today, Avon will make the trip to down to Stark County to face Our Lady of the Sacred Heart out of Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, in the Wishes Can Happen Invitational at GlenOak High School. Avon comes in with a 2-1 record after Monday's loss against Fairview. The Chargers travel west with a 6-1 record. "We've always wanted to take our team somewhere but it's hard around the holiday season because all of our coaches have young kids," Avon coach Mike Fitch said. "So we didn't want to go too far and this kind of worked out well. We go down and play at 1:30 and get to come back later in the same day. It's good for our team to spend that time together because we have some sophomores on the team that really haven't been around the older guys too much." Avon's first two games were against Southwestern Conference foes. Now the Eagles are in a stretch of four consecutive non-league games that will give them a chance to work out the kinks before playing eight SWC games in 18 days beginning Jan. 7. "We want to implement a lot of stuff we haven't done yet and try it out against non-conference opponents," Fitch said. Avon Lake will stay much closer to home when it travels to Berea-Midpark to face Barberton as part of the Titans Holiday Hoops event today at noon. The Shoremen will look to turn things around after starting the year 1-6 while the Magics come in with a 5-2 record. A pair of local girls teams will also take part in the Titans Holiday Hoops event Saturday with Avon playing North Royalton and Midview taking on Beaumont. North Ridgeville will spend the weekend down in Brunswick playing in the Herron Holiday Hoops Classic. The Rangers (2-4) will look to snap their four-game losing streak today against the host Blue Devils then will return Saturday to face Buckeye. Another local team looking to get back in the win column is Lorain. The 1-3 Titans will have their chance tonight at the Sandusky Streakball Classic against Sandusky at 7:30. On Saturday, Lorain will play either Brush or Toledo Scott. Clearview and Midview give Lorain County two chances to bring home a title from the Bay Holiday Tournament, which gets underway today when the Middies face Cuyahoga Heights at 3 p.m. and the Clippers play Bay at 4:30. Cuyahoga Heights (4-2) is coming off a third-place finish in the Joe Labella tournament last weekend and the Middies (1-5) are looking to snap a four-game losing streak. The Clippers (2-4) have won two of their last three while Bay comes into the game with a 5-3 record. "I look at this challenge this weekend as like a mini NBA Cup," Clearview coach Jason Christensen said. "It's fun to have a little tournament during the season. It gives us a chance to play for something. "Bay is a solid team and they do things the right way, we're looking forward to that task. At the beginning of the year we spent a lot of time scouting team and thinking about what we should do against this team or that team. Then we decided we should just work on us and what we can get better at and making sure guys know their roles. That's paid off for us." Closer to home are a pair of high-profile regular-season games today. Two of the area's hottest teams will take the court at Keystone when the 9-0 Wildcats host Amherst (6-2). The teams played an overtime thriller last year at Amherst. Elyria Catholic will look to kick-start it's season when it hosts Perkins tonight in the Coliseum. The Panthers are 1-7 almost midway through their schedule, but it's just game No. 4 for the Pirates (2-1), who, like Avon, got their season off to a late start after their football played in the state finals. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.