Avon High School has become known for its football program, and boys basketball coach Mike Fitch has decided to embrace it.
Sporting a roster filled with broad-shouldered, muscular athletes, Fitch and his crew have dedicated themselves to becoming a physically imposing team that can force its will on its opponents.
First in line was Brookside, which traveled to Avon on Dec. 6. Final score? 75-29 in favor of the home team.
“That was our focus, be physical,” Fitch said. “We’re trying to make that our identity. I don’t think we had an identity last year. We’re big and strong, credit to the weight room. These kids lift every day in class. They’re just getting stronger and stronger. So we said that’s an advantage that we have, and it’s something we’re going to use. We have a big football program, so let’s take advantage of it. Even our non-football guys are big and strong.”
Brookside came into the game unbeaten in two outings, while it was the season-opener for the Eagles. Under Coach Larry Babics, the Cardinals favor a high-flying style with lots of full court pressure and quick shots. But on this night, Brookside was unable to accomplish much of anything against Avon’s young team that had an all-underclassman starting lineup.
“They were able to do whatever they wanted,” Babics said. “We did not compete from anything. Nothing. We’re not good defensively, and we don’t make open shots, we don’t make free throws. We get pushed around and we don’t push back. We’re not a very mentally tough team, and we’re certainly not a physically tough team yet. This is the result you get. No one played well, no one coached well. We just got our (butts) kicked from the tip until ... thank God there was a running clock.”
Actually, Brookside put a scare into the Eagles in the game’s opening moments, as sophomore sharpshooter Nolan Waechter drilled a 3-pointer from the right side to give his team a 3-2 lead just 1 minute, 41 seconds into the game.
“First games are nervous,” Fitch said. “They’re coming in 2-0, they’re a good team, and the way they play, they can score in spurts. It scares you when they hit that 3 in the first couple minutes. But our kids focused and dialed in.”
That’s putting it mildly.
Once the Cardinals took their only lead of the night, they didn’t score again for nearly 10 full minutes on the game clock. Brookside went ice cold, hitting just 1 of 12 shots in the first quarter, including 1 of 9 on 3-pointers. The drought continued into the second period as the Eagles put together a 22-0 run with seven different players scoring points.
The half ended with Avon sitting on a 40-13 lead, rendering anything that happened in the second half to be moot. Brookside’s shooting woes were remarkable, as the Cardinals hits just 4 of 27 field goal attempts for 15%, 2 of 17 from beyond the arc for 12%.
But Babics said the thought never occurred to him that his team might try to change its style of play and slow things down.
“That’s not what we do,” he said. “We’ve got to compete. We’ve got to learn to compete and fight through it. Either they’ll figure it out or we’ll be an average basketball team. We play a lot of good non-conference teams this year. This just happens to be one of them. We’ve got a lot of them, and if we play like that, we’re going to get a lot of these.”
Avon junior forward Nate Farley led all players with 13 points and 18 rebounds, with most of it happening in the first half. He was backed by senior Matt Fischer with 11 points off the bench, Nolan Good with nine points and Tyson Ziegler with eight.
“Nate Farley did a great job,” Fitch said. “Tyson Ziegler is our leader. Evan Garcia is a defensive guy who frustrates the other team’s best guy. What he does doesn’t often show up in the papers.”
Brookside was led by Waechter with nine points and senior guard Avery Young with six.
“You could tell it was too much for them tonight, and they didn’t respond to it,” Babics said. “They got punched and they never were able to punch back. It’s a self-evaluation. Don’t expect the next guy to do it, you do it. Until some of those guys step up, this is the result we’re going to have against some of those better teams.”