GRAFTON, Ohio — Despite all the spectacular individual athletic moves that can occur on a basketball court, it’s still a team game. And until somebody figures out how to play as a team better than Olmsted Falls does, the Bulldogs are going to be the team to beat.
Such was the case Wednesday when Olmsted Falls traveled to face Midview in a key early-season Southwestern Conference girls basketball matchup. The Bulldogs broke open a close game with one of their patented spurts late in the first quarter and eventually took a 61-46 victory over the Middies. Olmsted Falls, ranked No. 1 in the cleveland.com Top 25, is now 5-0, while No. 4 Midview falls to 4-1.
For the opening four minutes of the game, the teams traded baskets, and it appeared it was going to be a tightly contested affair between two powerhouse teams. But that’s when Olmsted Falls changed its approach.
“We team defended,” said Bulldogs coach Jordan Eaton. “That’s been what’s working for us this season so far. You’ve got to score points, we know that. But we were able to team defend. They have good players that can’t be defended really well one on one. They present a lot of problems one on one. After the first couple of possessions, we really locked in and decided that we were going to defend together.”
Midview’s Olivia DiFranco opened the scoring for the Middies with a mid-range jumper. A few minutes later, 6-foot-5 center Mary Meng scored after rebounding her own miss and then hit another layup on a lob pass. But neither of them scored again until the third quarter, and by then it was too late.
“I think we just started to play as a team,” said Olmsted Falls senior point guard Paige Kohler. “We were working as a team and getting stops on defense. No one was doing it individually. We worked as a team and were able to get that little run.”
With 3:30 to play in the opening period, the Middies held a 10-9 lead. But Olmsted Falls finished the period on a 9-0 run that eventually turned into a 21-4 run that resulted in a 30-14 halftime lead. Midview never got closer than 13 points for the rest of the game.
“That’s what they do,” said Midview coach Brittney McNamara-Cole. “They go on those spurts, and that’s what kills you. It happened to us early on. The other thing that happened was we couldn’t make a layup to save our life. That was what really hurt us, not being able to make those baskets early on. We kind of beat ourselves tonight.”
Kohler, a first-team All-Ohio selection last year who will play next year at Buffalo, had her usual steady game with 17 points and seven assists. Many of her passes went to Danielle Cameron, who led all players with 22 points, including scoring 15 of her team’s first 21 points.
“She’s the ultimate leader,” Eaton said of Kohler. “Everybody can kind of relax when she’s out there. She does a really good job of decision making. It’s something that’s really hard to teach. I’m not even sure that you can teach it. She makes great decisions, and you combine that with not having an offensive weakness, and that’s what you get.”
DiFranco had a big third quarter and finished the night with 19 points to lead the Middies. Meng added 13 points and 13 rebounds, but six of the rebounds came in the first quarter when the score was tight. Once the Bulldogs pulled away, they were able to neutralize Meng and her size.
“We just had to fight harder,” Eaton said. “They’re legit. They play hard. They’re at an elite level when it comes to effort, and we had to match it. We weren’t early, but then we made the decision to do so.”
A factor for Midview was that both Meng and DiFranco picked up their second fouls early on. DiFranco committed her second on a charge with 1:25 left in the first quarter and Meng’s second came midway through the second period when she fouled Kohler on a mid-range jumper that turned into a three-point play.
It appeared both players lost some aggression while attempting to avoid picking up their third foul in the first half. Could the outcome have been different? Who knows? But the Middies know now that they are looking up at Olmsted Falls in the SWC standings.
“Jordan does a really fantastic job with them,” McNamara said. “They all buy in constantly to everything he tells them. They’ve played together a really long time. The core of those girls has been there. It’s hard to match that chemistry. We have the same girls from last year, but we have to be able to play at that level all the time.”
The teams will meet again at Olmsted Falls on Jan. 21.
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