ROMM PHOTOGRAPHY

Green senior guard David Lebo scored 19 points to lead the Bulldogs to a 72-67 victory at Copley on Friday night.

GRANGER TWP., Ohio – A college basketball coach once described full-court pressure as ‘insidious’; one turnover can usually lead to four or five.  That’s the recipe the Nordonia Knights used to defeat the Highland Hornets 76-47 in a Suburban League match-up Friday night.

“We pride ourselves on being a 32-minute pressing team,” Nordonia coach Matt Cash said. “For the last three weeks against Copley, Cloverleaf and the first-quarter against Highland, we weren’t getting after it as hard as we did tonight.  After the first quarter, something clicked in.”

And for Nordonia, did it ever.  A 14-0 run in a four-minute stretch of the second period took the Knights’ lead from 16-12 to 30-12.  In that run, the Hornets turned it over four straight times that led to four Nordonia lay-ups and eight points.

“You can’t chase their backsides and defend,” said Highland head coach Mike Marcinko.  “When we had to play defense we were fine.  We turned it over eight times in the second quarter.  That did us in.”

Senior point guard Nick Rodriguez was in the middle of that 14-0 run for Nordonia.  Rodriguez had a couple of baskets, a couple of steals and a couple of assists to kick-start the Knights.

“We picked it up in the second quarter,” Rodriguez said.  “We got our transition going and that led to some easy buckets.  Coach Cash wanted us to get up on them.  They couldn’t handle it when we trapped and threw it away.”

In the run, Nordonia mixed up the size and scope of its press against the Hornets.

“We have a couple of different presses,” Rodriguez said. “Some have more pressure than others.”

It took the halftime break for Highland to figure out how to deal with the pressure.  But, the Hornets were down 16 points.  An Austin Adams 3-pointer got the deficit down to 12 at 43-29 with 4:49 to go in the third.  The Knights used the press to shove the lead out to 19 at the end of three.

Marcinko said it’s difficult to prepare for the press that Nordonia uses.

“It’s hard to replicate it,” he said. “We were playing five-on-seven in practice to try and replicate the confusion and the hectic pace.  But, athletically you can’t.”

Six-foot-7 junior forward Chris Scott led the way for the Knights with 21 points.  Rodriguez added 14, and senior guard Patrick Osborne added 12.

For the Hornets, junior forward Brennan Scott had 13.  Junior center Austin Adams and freshman guard Tanner Houska had 12 points apiece.

Nordonia (11-2, 8-0) 10 – 22- 20 – 24 = 76

Highland (6-7, 3-5) 8 – 8 – 17 – 14 = 47

INDIVIDUAL SCORING:

Nordonia:  Chris Scott 10 1-1 21, Nick Rodriguez 6 1-1 14, Patrick Osborne 5 1-1 12, Jarrett Ruffin 3 3-4 9, Zach Holt 2 1-1 5, Jaylyn Osbey 2 0-0 4, Brad Zaborszki 1 0-0 3, Dameon Luster 1 1-2 3, Tyler Tinfina 1 0-0 3, Nick Piotrowski 0 2-2 2.  TOTALS:  31 10-12 76.

Highland:  Brennan Scott 6 1-5 13, Tanner Houska 6 0-2 12, Austin Adams 4 2-2 12, Colt Kinsey 1 0-0 2, Dylan McVay 1 0-0 2, Austin Casenheiser 1 0-0 2, Brogan Scott 1 0-0 2, Sebastian Yerian 1 0-0 2, Adam Bialosky 0 0-1 0.  TOTALS 21 3-10 47.

In other Suburban League boys basketball games:

WADSWORTH 56, TALLMADGE 37. At Tallmadge, senior Josh Kipfer led the Grizzlies (7-6, 5-3) with 22 points, and senior Jack Snowball dropped in 15 in the win over the Blue Devils (6-7, 3-6).

Tallmadge was led by Anthony Gotto's 11 points.

REVERE 52, CLOVERLEAF 50 (OT).  At Richfield, senior Mitch Ruetty scored 23 points to lead the way for the Minutemen (2-11, 2-6).

Senior Mark Mockbee added 15 points, including three 3-pointers, to the Revere victory.

Junior Robby Buckwald popped in 11 points for Cloverleaf (1-12, 0-8).

Cloverleaf's J.D. Schleich led the Colts with 12 points. Junior Robby Buckwald scored 11.