Boys basketball: Avon opens season with win over North Olmsted

AVON — Saturday was like Christmas morning for Avon. After weeks of anticipation and with a soft snow falling outside the gymnasium, the Eagles finally got to play with their shiny new toys. Avon raced out to a 31-point halftime lead on its way to a season-opening 60-25 non-conference win over North Olmsted. Eleven Avon players put their names in the scoring column as the team showed off everything its been working on in practice over the last seven weeks as its football team was winning a second consecutive state championship. "It felt great. We have a bunch of guys who have been working hard in practice since this summer waiting for this day," said sophomore Holden Krugman, who was one of two Avon players to finish with 10 points. "It was good to get that first win, especially by that much." North Olmsted (0-5) fell behind 21-7 after one quarter and was then outscored 20-3 in the second quarter. It might have been worse for the undersized North Olmsted squad if not for the play of 5-foot-8 junior guard Anthony D'Alessandro, who scored all seven of his team's first quarter points. "We're in Year 2 of trying to build a program that hasn't traditionally been successful and what I wanted was to expose our kids to bigger, faster and stronger (teams)," said North Olmsted coach Matt Joseph, a former Midview assistant. "I wanted (the players) to see where we need to be to be a better program." Krugman scored a basket with 6:47 to play in the third quarter to make the score 45-10 and send the game into running time. Junior Dean Abdul took over from there with three consecutive scores, including a two-handed dunk as Avon built its lead to as high as 43 points. Krugman and Abdul both stand at 6-5, and Avon has 10 players who measure 6-2 or taller. Meanwhile North Olmsted only had one starter, 6-2 sophomore Billal Suilaman, who is taller that 5-10. "We have a lot of rim protectors," said Abdul, who also scored 10 points. "I feel like we pressured the ball well and played very good defense. Our coach has been preaching elite effort in every practice. I think we came out and showed that tonight. "We're been preparing for this moment since April. It felt great to go out and show everyone what we're made of." Junior Preston Johnson and sophomore Trevor Sykora both came off the bench to score eight points for Avon. North Olmsted also had its leading scorer come off the bench as junior Dominic Martin scored all nine of his points in the second half. "We've been looking forward to tonight," Avon coach Mike Fitch said. "We have a lot of guys who have never been in that situation and they needed to gain the experience. "One of the goals this season is to use our height and our length to pressure full court and get our hands on some passes and crash the board and get some offensive rebounds." Avon's focus on rebounding was evident in the fact it outrebounded North Olmsted 34-12. "It was good to get our game legs under us because we have a very good (Olmsted Falls) Bulldogs team coming in on Tuesday," Fitch said. "I like the positivity and energy I saw today. We'll have to keep carrying that forward." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Avon 60, North Olmsted 25 NORTH OLMSTED (25): Andrew Halfley 2-0-6, Anthony D'Alessandro 3-0-7, Jake Perkins 0-0-0, Brett Zatta 0-0-0, Nick Fratini 1-1-3, Dominic Martin 4-1-9, Billal Suliman 0-0-0. Totals 10-2-25. AVON (60): Shane Carty 1-1-3, Luke Fox 1-0-3, Trevor Sykora 4-0-8, Gavyn Kittelberger 3-0-7, Preston Johnson 3-1-8, Holden Krugman 4-2-10, Dean Abdul 5-0-10, Joey Ziegler 1-0-2, Brooks Good 2-0-4, Caden Krugman 1-1-3, Sam Griffiths 0-2-2. Totals 25-7-53. North Olmsted 7 3 7 8 —&emsp;25 Avon 21 20 14 5 —&emsp;60 Three-point goals: North Olmsted (Halfley 2, D'Alessandro ), Avon (Fox, Kittelberger, Johnson). Field goals: North Olmsted 10-33 (30 percent), Avon 25-45 (56 percent). Free throws: North Olmsted 2-5 (40 percent), Avon 7-9 (78 percent). Rebounds: North Olmsted 12, Avon 34. Turnovers: North Olmsted 18, Avon 13. Team fouls: North Olmsted 8, Avon 11. Junior varsity: Avon, 63-30.