Boys Basketball: Avon routs rival Avon Lake

AVON LAKE — It sure didn't feel much like a rivalry game. Avon turned what was a close game to start the second quarter into a one-sided affair by scoring 18 straight points to take the crowd out of the game. The Eagles never looked back in a 74-47 Southwestern Conference victory over Avon Lake. "That was pretty good, we came out with energy and were ready to go from the start like Avon Lake did something to us," Avon coach Mike Fitch said. "It sounds weird, we scored 18 straight, but defensively not giving up anything was really awesome." The Eagles improved to 15-5 overall and 8-5 in the SWC with a non-conference game at home against Bay on Tuesday and the regular-season finale at Elyria on Friday. The Avon defense may have put together its best 16 minutes of play in the first half, allowing four Shoremen field goals, with the first coming with just 17 seconds left in the first quarter on a Christopher Gaulding tip-in to cut the Eagles lead to 18-12 after one. The teams traded baskets to start the second as Trevor Sykora scored off a Brooks Good (10 points) steal and Avon Lake's Ezra Jones nailed a 3-pointer to keep the game close at 20-15 52 seconds into the quarter. That's when Avon's defense helped put away the game as the Eagles scored 18 straight. Junior guard Joey Ziegler scored eight of his 14 points, Good added four points, Gavyn Kittelberger scored four of his team-high 17 points, including a dunk, and Preston Johnson chipped in a layup as Avon's lead ballooned to 38-15. Jeffery Ball ended the run with a midrange jumper for Avon Lake's fourth and final field goal of the half. Avon Lake is 7-14, 3-10. "This is always a big game for us, and we were ready to go," said Ziegler, who grabbed five rebounds and had a steal. "We knew Liam (Besaw of Avon Lake) wasn't going to play (due to an injury) and we wanted to come out and get after it right away. "When you take control defensively like that, it's hard for the other team to do anything and we just kept getting transition buckets all night." The Eagles forced 17 Avon Lake turnovers and made the most of them by scoring 25 points. "I think a lot of their scoring had a lot to do with us, we were awful on defense tonight, that's the most disappointing part," Avon Lake coach TJ Kwasniak said. "We knew we would struggle offensively, they played defense the way we wanted to play defense tonight. "We've been playing hard and hustling. If you told me we would give that effort tonight in a rivalry game, I would have said no way." The one Avon Lake player who did show the effort Kwasniak wanted was Jones, who nailed four shots from behind the arc and went 7-of-8 (88 percent) from the free throw line to finish with a game-high 25 points and five rebounds. Contact James Brady at jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Avon 74, Avon Lake 47 AVON (74): Shane Carty 0-0-0, Luke Fox 0-0-0, Caden Clapham 2-0-5, Trevor Sykora 2-0-4, Gavyn Kittleberger 8-1-17, Preston Johnson 3-0-6, Kyle Partridge 2-0-5, Holden Krugman 2-0-4, Dean Abdul 2-0-4, Joey Ziegler 5-2-14, Brooks Good 5-0-10, Caden Krugman 0-0-0, Sam Griffiths 0-3-3, Noah Behymer 0-0-0, Mason Berger 1-0-2. Totals 32-6-74. AVON LAKE (47): Ezra Jones 7-7-25, Luke Gillespie 1-0-2, Jacob Cooke 0-1-1, JJ Bradley 0-0-0, Tucker Budzar 1-0-2, Jeffery Ball 3-0-6, Chase Cartwright 1-0-2, Juewlius Ross 1-0-3, Mason Ambrose 0-2-2, Christopher Gaulding 2-0-4. Totals 16-10-47. Avon&emsp;18&emsp;22&emsp;19&emsp;15&emsp;—&emsp;74 Avon Lake&emsp;12&emsp;5&emsp;14&emsp;16&emsp;—&emsp;47 Three-point goals: Avon 4-16 (25 percent, Ziegler 2, Clapham, Partridge), Avon Lake 5-18 (28 percent, Jones 4, Ross). Field goals: Avon 32-67 (48 percent); Avon Lake 16-42 (38 percent). Free throws: Avon 6-12 (50 percent); Avon Lake 10-17 (59 percent). Rebounds: Avon 40, Avon Lake 29 Turnovers: Avon 5, Avon Lake 17 Junior varsity: Avon, 44-39.