By Matt Florjancic
MaxPreps.com
The opening game of the basketball season is usually a good time to learn about a team. When an injury to a key player occurs, it could turn a promising season into a struggle to reach .500 in the blink of an eye.
Within days of each other, Lakewood St. Edward High School lost one of the top recruits in the country and a prominent member of the backcourt. The wheels could have fallen off the victory train, but veteran Eagles coach Eric Flannery made sure the team kept rolling.
“It’s actually rewarding in a lot of ways,” Flannery said. “It started off with a lot of disappointment because early in the season, after our first game, we lost two of our starters to injuries. Delvon Roe, an All-American who is going to Michigan State and probably one of our best players, tore his knee. Then, Alex Sterba, our starting wing player, tore his ACL.
“Since then, our team has stayed together and regrouped and has played very well despite those injuries,” he added. “We’ve still got nine seniors on this team, which makes a big portion of our nucleus. Their leadership and the fact that these guys have been here before has helped us quite a bit.”
Without Roe and Sterba, the Eagles (22-4) have relied on Indiana University-bound forward Tom Pritchard and fellow senior point guard Frankie Dobbs for leadership and scoring on the inside and on the perimeter.
“Our point guard is a Division I point guard,” Flannery said of Dobbs. “He’s really held the ship together with taking care of the basketball and being a leader on the floor. Between the two of them (Dobbs and Pritchard), they have taken the brunt of everything on their shoulders and really carried this team.
“What’s been great about this team is, even when you have those two injuries, other guys have really stepped up their game,” he added. “(They) have used it as an opportunity to be successful and help this team win. That’s really what they’ve done.”
One of the reasons for the togetherness and refusal to lose displayed by the Eagles is the bond that was formed last season. St. Edward advanced through the regular season, district and regional tournaments unblemished in 2006-07. Then it came time for the state semifinal against Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller. The Eagles lost, 67-60, to the Fighting Crusaders.
That loss, which ended one season, became the mantra for another. Even without the roster being complete, this time around, the Eagles are focused on the Division I OHSAA championship.
“It taught us a lot of things,” Flannery said of the setback to Moeller in last year’s state Final Four. “If you don’t play well on that particular night, your season could be over. That’s what happened to us last year.
“We didn’t play a great game that night and it ended our season,” he added. “Our guys have come into this season and especially to this tournament being focused and trying to at least get back to where we were last year even despite our injuries. Hopefully, they get a step or two further and win a state championship.”
Flannery knows a thing or two about winning on the biggest stage in the state. He took the Eagles to the Ohio championship in 1998.
Standing in the way of the 2007-08 edition of the Eagles and a return trip to the regionals are the Valley Forge Patriots. If Valley Forge does not pull the upset, St. Edward will move on to play the winner of the Elyria Pioneers-Olmsted Falls Bulldogs Grafton District final.
“It’s tournament time and I hope to see a team that is beginning to gel and play its best basketball of the season,” said Flannery. “One thing that we always strive for in our program is to peak at the end of the year. We try to play our best basketball now. We’re going to compete and we’re going to be a tough out during the tournament.
“We try to use the experience from last year and the seniors that we have coming back this season to really make a deep run in the tournament,” added Flannery. “That’s kind of what we expect from ourselves.”
St. Edward will not be an easy team to upset. The first game of the season for St. Edward was a home contest against Campbell Hall from North Hollywood, California. The game was televised live on ESPN in front of the entire nation. Though they trailed Campbell Hall, the Eagles won, 78-73.
“When you open up the season, you’ve got those opening night jitters to begin with,” Flannery said. “You’re not going to be in a bigger venue or situation than that the rest of the season. The fact that our kids responded and beat a great basketball team in that type of atmosphere only has helped us and has really given us a positive stepping stone to start the season.
“It let our guys know who we can be,” he continued. “No situation that we’re going to face the rest of the year is going to be tougher.”
Basketball News and Notes: The Great State Tradition Continues
* Basketball has a special place in the hearts and minds of Ohio high school sports fans. Much of the affection can be attributed to the great lineage of athletes to advance from the preps to the pros. LeBron James (Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary) and Jim Jackson (Toledo Macomber-Whitney) are the names of the recent past, but new identities have emerged to carry on the tradition of basketball.
Kosta Koufos (Canton Glen Oak) and Jon Diebler (Upper Sandusky) were two players who used great prep careers to earn scholarships to Ohio State, where they have seen significant playing time in place of NBA rookies Mike Conley Jr. and Greg Oden.
* All four divisions have great talent, but it takes more than individuals to be the last team standing.
The Division I bracket still has several ranked teams in action, but a few contenders were upset along the way. With the district finals to be completed Saturday evening, the thinning of the herd shall continue.
Cleveland Glenville, ranked No. 8 in Division I, cruised to a District finals appearance with a 79-39 victory over Madison. The Tarblooders are led by point guard Kendall Holt, who plays for his father, Glenville coach Michael Holt. The combination of father and son has the Tarblooders rolling, despite losing the Senate League championship game to John F. Kennedy prior to the playoffs.
The Cleveland Heights Tigers collared the 10th-ranked Garfield Heights Bulldogs in the Warrensville Heights bracket. The Tigers won easily, 88-74, and will battle a Warren G. Harding team that fought hard for a 65-59 victory over Bedford.
Staying in the state’s top division, Massillon Perry and Canton Timken will play Saturday night in a match-up that features two of Ohio’s top 15 teams. Both teams struggled to get wins in the district semifinals, with Perry beating North Canton Hoover, 49-46, and Timken winning over Massillon Jackson, 71-64.
The Ashland Arrows look to make it two-straight top 15 upsets. They knocked off Mansfield Senior in overtime Thursday and face third-ranked Perrysburg for the district championship.
* Division II could have a match-up of future Ohio State Buckeyes on its hands in the state Final Four, but Toledo Libbey and Canal Winchester have to survive the district and regional tournaments first. Libbey plays Toledo Central Catholic at Bowling Green, and will remain there in the regional if it beats the Fighting Irish. Libbey is led by 6-foot-5 guard William Buford. Buford has many comparing him to Jackson, but wants to bring home a state championship before heading to Columbus.
B.J. Mullens, a 7-foot center from Winchester, has the same desire. He is looking for a chance to play St. Paris Graham in the regional tournament, but has to take care of the district final first.
* The Triway Titans went to back-to-back state championships in 2005 and 2006, but 2007-08 has been a challenge. They had single-digit wins and the first losing regular season in well over a decade. However, they put together a nice tournament run, getting to the district semifinals before losing to Creston Norwayne. It was the first year of competition for the Titans in Division III after enrollment and realignment moved them from II to III.
* Shadyside pulled an upset in Division IV action when it defeated Wellsville, the sixth-ranked team in the division, 66-59, in the semifinals. Shadyside's reward for the victory is a game against the second-ranked team in Division IV, Malvern, Saturday afternoon at Meadowbrook High School.
Matt Florjancic, a freelance reporter and a sports show host for WOBL and WDLW in Oberlin, covers Northern Ohio for MaxPreps.com.
