Beachwood vs. West Geauga boys basketball: Bison force 21 turnovers, down Wolverines, 71-61
Dec. 14—After a much slower pace than his team was used to, Beachwood head coach David Krasnow had a simple message on the road against West Geauga on Dec. 14: Tempo.
In the second quarter, the Bison created turnover after turnover, and Nathan Lurie hit five 3-pointers in a row that gave them a cushion.
Beachwood cruised to a 79-61 victory, their first in CVC play.
The Bison (3-2) switched to a full-court press at the start of the second quarter, which allowed them to have extra pressure on the ballhandlers for West Geauga (1-4). Then they took away passing lanes when the Wolverines tried to get the ball inside.
This led to 21 turnovers caused by Beachwood, something Krasnow expects from his defense when it can enforce its tempo.
"What we're trying to do is play a long game," Krasnow said. "If we can speed you up, you're not used to having that pressure everywhere on the court. While sometimes there are those turnovers in the backcourt, it forces the opponents to go faster than they are used to and then they miss layups, have bad passes and we can take advantage of that."
Lurie was the biggest benefactor. After a first quarter in which he had two points, the senior caught fire from deep and had 19 in the second quarter for the Bison as the game went to intermission.
Even with a player shadowing him through the second half, Lurie finished with a game-high 32 points.
Combined with the pace of play that Beachwood likes, Krasnow knew at some point it would be a matter of time for the offense to get going.
It was a nice win for @BisonAthletics over West Geauga 79-61. Head coach David Krasnow talks about their slow start and getting their tempo going #NHBasketball pic.twitter.com/wbT7mXZs2d
— Ben Hercik (@BHercikNH) December 15, 2022
"We're not very tall, so we want to play fast and be aggressive," Krasnow said. "We saw a combo of not playing at the pace and aggression that we wanted. We changed our full-court press to a man-to-man with trapping. Nathan hitting five 3s in a row is also a big help."
With Lurie well-guarded in the second half, Noah Page and Josh Jones sprung into action for Beachwood. They had 12 and 16, respectively, to help the Bison maintain their lead. Page was also the leading rebounder for Beachwood with seven.
With all three clicking, Krasnow knows that gives the Bison a threat to score at every level, something that will be critical as the season progresses.
"My goal is to see the three of them average 50 points a game combined," Krasnow said. "They're tough players and are able to have nights like tonight. I got on Noah with his shot selection tonight and it's something that we're working on but when everyone is going it's an exciting thing to watch."
When West Geauga was able to keep control of the possession, more often than not the Wolverines found the bottom of the bucket.
They also were able to control the glass throughout the game and took advantage of those extra opportunities. Coach Micah Young said finding passing lanes against tight defenses is what the Wolverines need to improve on.
Even in the loss, @WestGBoysBBall head coach Micha Young know that there is things that they can learn from against the Bison #NHBasketball pic.twitter.com/pqnBOFb7CL
— Ben Hercik (@BHercikNH) December 15, 2022
"We knew that Beachwood liked to play with tempo, so we tried to keep them in the halfcourt to keep that in check," Young said. "We struggled to get into good positions to get in that halfcourt and when we did that also played into their hands with wanting to run. We'll see that all year long and it's something we need to focus on. We need to keep finding our way inside and that's something we can work on in practice."
The Wolverines were led by Jerry Kline-Ruminski, who had 19 points.
Both teams are on the road the next time they take the floor Dec. 17. West Geauga heads to Harvey, while Beachwood makes the trek to Geneva.
