Boys basketball: Avon starts slow, pulls away from Brookside

SHEFFIELD — Mike Fitch wanted to see his Avon basketball team speed up the game Saturday night at Brookside and the Eagles responded. Avon used a 15-point run late in the first half to separate itself from the Cardinals in winning 73-42 in non-conference play. The Eagles improved to 5-2 on the season while Brookside fell for just the second time in eight outings. "Yep, focus on getting downhill," Fitch said. "I think we were settling a little bit on outside shots and we had to focus on getting downhill and then we knocked them down. "Obviously, we weren't ready to go the first quarter. We don't play defense like that. We gave up 20 points in the first nine minutes. I called time out and (Brookside) ended up only scoring a couple more in the second quarter." Sparked by the defensive work of 6-foot-1 senior Gavin Kittleberger, Avon broke free from a precarious 27-21 lead to a 42-21 blowout right after Fitch's timeout reminder. Kittleberger, who had a couple of key steals, scored seven of his team-high 14 points in the second quarter but it was senior Shane Carty's eight-point outburst off the bench that really got the scoring going during the 15-0 run. "We knew we started out slow," said Kittleberger. "We had trouble guarding the ball but we knew we had to take it to another level. We knew we had to play strong on both ends." Brookside sophomore Zeke Lind finally put an end to the run with a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left in the half but by then the horses had left the barn. Avon led 42-24 at the half, increased it to 60-32 at the end of three before both teams emptied the benches down the stretch. "They went on a big run," said Brookside coach Larry Babics. "I think it was a six-point game with maybe four minutes left (in the half). Too many turnovers, careless ones. They're hard enough to guard when your defense is set and you give them easy ones. Give them credit for turning us over." Avon had 10 players score at least a point with four reaching double figures. Junior Brooks Good joined Kittlemeyer at the top of the scorers with 14 with both junior Joey Ziegler and Carty finishing with 11. Avon won the rebound battle by a wide 45-26 margin and turned the Cardinals over 17 times with 11 coming in the first half, six in the second quarter. "We had two guys out too," said Fitch when asked about the depth of his team. "It was a shock that Caden Clapham wasn't able to go. Twisted his ankle in practice (Friday). I thought he'd still be able to go so that kind of messed up our rotation defensively. He brings an attitude off the bench but we are deep. We want to play a lot of guys." Junior Caden Krugman wound up leading the rebounding with 10 but Good and 6-6 sophomore Sam Griffiths each grabbed seven with Ziegler and sophomore Trevor Sykora getting four each. Brookside was led by Alex Arra's 14 points and Lind's 11 but junior Mason Waechter was held in check by the Eagles. Waechter scored just four points and only took one shot in the first half but he did pull in five rebounds to tie Ethan Blythe in that category. Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com. Avon 72, Brookside 43 AVON (72): Gavin Kittelberger 5-3-14, Dean Abdul 1-0-2, Joey Ziegler 4-2-11, Brooks Good 6-1-14, Sam Griffiths 1-1-3, Trevor Sykora 2-0-6, Preston Johnson 3-0-8, Caden Krugman 0-0-0, Luke Fox 0-1-1, Shane Carty 4-1-11, Kyle Partridge 0-0-0, Carson Wodoslawsky 1-0-2. Totals 27-9-72. BROOKSIDE (43): Alex Arra 6-1-14, Ethan Blythe 3-3-9, Mason Waechter 1-2-4, Zeke Lind 3-4-11, Noah Muniz 0-2-2, Danny Fries 0-0-0, Colton Casey 0-0-0, Jake Holman 0-3-3, Davian Audifre 0-0-0. Totals 13-15-43. Avon 17 25 18 12 --72 Brookside 14 10 8 11 --43 Three-point goals: Avon 9-27 (Sykora 2, Johnson 2, Carty 2, Kittleberger, Ziegler, Good), Brookside 2-12 (Arra, Lind). Field goals: Avon 27-68 (40 percent), Brookside 13-39 (33 percent). Free throws: Avon 9-13 (69 percent), Brookside 15-18 (83 percent). Rebounds: Avon 45 (Krugman 10), Brookside 26 (Blythe, Waechter 5). Turnovers: Avon 10, Brookside 17. Total fouls: Avon 19, Brookside 14. Technical foul: Krugman. Junior varsity: Avon, 68-40.