Ernst leads Edgewood past Brookfield, to 7-1 mark
Jan. 4—BROOKFIELD — During Wednesday's 68-50 victory over the Brookfield boys basketball team, Edgewood coach John Bowler thought his players weren't being aggressive enough in the first half.
At intermission, Edgewood led 23-17 thanks to a strong start and finish to the half.
But it was Brookfield's 11-0 run in the second quarter to get back into the game that had the Edgewood squad's attention.
"I wasn't real pleased with the way we played the first half," Bowler said. "We were tentative, made some stupid turnovers, didn't play real aggressive.'
"So, I said 'let it fly, let's shoot some threes.' That what we do. [Brookfield] gave us a little bit of trouble until we started making our threes."
In the third quarter, senior Logan Kray scored two 3-pointers and classmate Peyton Williams added another as each team scored 19 points. Kray contributed three more treys in the final quarter as Edgewood outscored Brookfield 26-14 to seal the victory.
"It gave me a ton of confidence," Kray said of his first 3-pointer that gave Edgewood a 28-21 lead. "I haven't been shooting real well coming into this game.
"So once I saw the first one fall, my teammates kept telling me to keep shooting. And that really boosted my confidence — it was great to see those shots go through [the net]."
Edgewood (7-1, 2-1 Chagrin Valley Lake) got off to a dominant start powered by senior Jacob Ernst's seven-point first quarter. His 3-pointer in the second quarter gave Edgewood a 16-6 lead and sophomore Mason Thorr's steal and layup opened up a 12-point advantage.
That's when Brookfield (4-4, 2-1 Mahoning Valley Gray) caught fire. Senior Matteo Fortuna scored six points in the 11-0 run that had the Edgewood lead down to 18-17.
"He's a really good player," Ernst said of Fortuna. "Coming in, [we knew] that was the one guy we had to stop."
Fortuna scored 22 points to lead Brookfield. Judah DeJoy made six baskets for 12 points.
"He was able to almost cut through three defenders we had on him, drawing fouls," Kray said of Fortuna's play.
Ernst led Edgewood with 29 points with a consistent scoring output, including seven points in each of the first three quarters and eight in the final one.
Also scoring in double figures were Kray with 18 points and Thorr with 13.
Ernst agreed with Bowler that his team needed to do better after Brookfield's 11-0 run erased a solid start.
"His message was to limit turnovers," Ernst said of the halftime speech. "There were three turnovers we had back-to-back-to-back.
"He said we had to limit those and just play our game."
With a senior-laden lineup, Ernst acknowledged his teammates are hoping for a grand finale to their varsity careers, but tough challenges are lurking.
"It's really fun playing with all my guys one last [season]," Ernst said. "[It's been] really good. [And] we're back on track now.
"We dropped one earlier against Geneva — we [think] we should be 8-0 right now."
Ernst was referring to the 70-68 triple-overtime loss on Dec. 16. A rematch is scheduled for Jan. 23.
"We have a couple of tough games coming," Kray said. "We want to keep on pushing towards the playoffs and get a top seed."
Of the 7-1 start, Bowler laughed and said "it's a lot more fun to win than lose, that's for sure.
"We've still got a ways to go," Bowler said. "We're 7-1 but it's a little deceiving 7-1, to be honest. We're going to get into the meat of our league [play] in the next two weeks. We'll find out if we're a pretender or a contender."
