Basketball Recap: Rootstown Comes Up Short

Rootstown managed to keep up with Garfield until halftime on Monday, but things quickly went downhill from there. The Rootstown Rovers might have been a little too into the holiday spirit, gifting the Garfield G-Men an easy 65-41 win. While losing is never fun, the Rovers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio basketball rankings (they are ranked 650th, while the G-Men are ranked 295th).

Garfield's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Preston Gedeon led the charge by going 11 of 24 en route to 29 points and three steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Cade Rock, who dropped a double-double on 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Rootstown dropped their record down to 2-6 with the loss, which was their third straight at home. As for Garfield, their record now sits at 6-1.

Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Rootstown and Southeast will round out the year against one another at at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday. Southeast has been dominant on offense recently, having racked up an incredible 196 points over their last three contests. As for Garfield, they will square off against Waterloo at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.