The Bedford boys basketball team (8-1) sprung out to a 21-9 lead by the end of the first quarter Friday night in Shaker Heights, on their way to 72-56 Lake Erie League victory over the Red Raiders (9-5).
Shaker began the game by applying immediate backcourt pressure to the Bearcats. Instead of folding under the barrage, the Bearcats showed poise, using their ball-handling skills and floor awareness to convert a number of layups. Bedford paired those scoring opportunities with a stingy defense, and other fast-break points, and soon found themselves in the driver’s seat during the first half.
Junior Jaylon Clark had 8 first-quarter points on his way to 17 for the game. Senior Chaze Harris added 18, with 10 in the second half, while senior Malik Simmons had 12 and Junior raymell Hester added 10 for the game.
Bedford came into the evening ranked seventh in the area on MaxPreps, with Shaker ranked 15th. Shaker handed St. Edwards (ranked second) one of their only two losses earlier in the season, and had another quality win over Warrensville Heights (ranked 13th) coming into the game, so the contest looked to be a battle between two evenly-matched teams.
Still, the Bearcats were able to keep the Red Raiders’ high-scoring offense off-balance for most of the first half, as they took a 39-21 lead into the locker room. (Three of those points coming from a last-second half-court shot by Harris.) Despite the disparate score, it was uncertain how long the Bearcats could keep the talented Red Raiders down, and Shaker came out fired-up for the second half.
Momentarily, the Bearcats saw their lead dwindle in the beginning minutes of the third quarter as their hustle was not matching that of their opponents. Junior Sean Conway provided a spark to get Bedford back on track with one of the more impressive series of plays you will find in a high school basketball game.
While Shaker was building momentum, one of its players was about to drive down court for an uncontested fast-break layup. Conway was at half court himself and the nearest defender to the ball, but still a distance away. At that point, he put his head down, and tore down the floor in a dead sprint to get to the Shaker player in time to alter his shot for a miss. Conway then grabbed the ball after the shot and quickly dribbled it back up the floor, stopping at the free-throw line, and then lobbing a perfect alley-oop pass to Harris for a slam. The four-point swing helped to turn the momentum back to the Bearcats.
As did Bedford’s disciplined handling of the ball during the second half. With a double-digit lead, it seemed like Bedford head coach Pete Priola was content to “take the air out of the ball” and slow down the game. The team ran a motion offense, and since there is no shot clock in high school basketball, they were able to basically play keep-away from Shaker until the Bearcats got the shots they wanted, which ended up being quite a few lay-ups. (Including a thunderous two-handed dunk by Malik Simmons leaping straight up from two feet.) The delay-game also limited the amount of possessions Shaker had to catch up.
For the Bearcats to run that type of offense required excellent fundamentals by the whole team, and the ability to forgo tempting open shots for open layups. Bedford delivered with sharp dribbling and passing, and Shaker never got the lead down to single digits. For a portion of the second half, Bedford had Harris, who is 6’4”, show his ball-handling skills by bringing the ball up the floor against a much smaller defender, and the scheme worked well setting up the motion offense.
Toward the end of the game, Shaker was forced to apply a full-court press again, but still with little results as Bedford went on to win its eighth victory in a row, and continue in first place in the Lake Erie League. According to the ArbiterLIVE website, this was the last regular-season game on the schedule for the Bearcats.
Bedford is in the Ohio Athletic Association Division I and will be playing in Region 1 in the tournament. The Bearcats’ record has earned them a first-round bye as a 6th Seed and they will play the winner of the Feb. 24, Elyria/Medina Highland game. Bedford will meet the winner on Saturday, February 27. See the OHSAA bracket here.
Other higher seeded teams in the Region 1 Northeast 5/Northeast 6 brackets include Lakewood St. Edwards (1), St. Ignatius (2), Garfield Heights (5) and Brunswick (7). Bedford’s only loss this year was to Garfield Heights 65-56 in the Bearcats first game of the season. According to MaxPreps, Garfield lost its last game of the season on Thursday to Brunswick 76-74.
