The last time the Chagrin Falls Boys Basketball Team played the Berkshire Badgers on Dec. 13, the Tigers narrowly defeated them, 47-46.
The last time the Chagrin Falls Boys Basketball Team played the Berkshire Badgers on Dec. 13, the Tigers narrowly defeated them, 47-46.
From that point forward, the Tigers went 7-2, which included a six game winning streak to start the new year.
Similarly, since Dec. 13, the Badgers went 6-2, with their only defeats coming to the Kirtland Hornets on Dec. 27 (a 2-point buzzer beater loss) and on Jan. 13 (5-point loss).
With both teams excelling, a packed house was on hand as they eagerly anticipated the matchup between the Tigers (9-4) and Badgers (8-4) on Jan. 16.
And just like on Dec. 13, the Tigers won by a slim margin, 48-46.
With 4:42 left in the contest, Tigers senior center Harrison Horvath made a key offensive rebound and put back to give his team a 42-41 lead.
After a Badgers turnover, the Tigers added a free throw with 4:04 left, to go up by two points, 43-41.
Badgers senior Luke Stute then hauled in a key defensive rebound which he followed by throwing a long outlet pass to senior Billy Verbic.
Catching the pass in transition, Verbic drove to the hoop and tied the game at 43-43 with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter.
Shortly thereafter, Tigers’ junior guard Brady Kaas was fouled and went to the line with 3:30 to go in the game.
Calm, cool and collected, Kaas drained both free throws to give the Tigers a two-point margin.
With the Tigers leading 45-43, both teams went scoreless over the next 1:13 of game time.
After the Badgers regained possession with 2:36 left in the fourth quarter, the Badgers ran a half court set.
Running the play perfectly, the Badgers found Verbic open behind the arc on the far left side of the court.
Executing the catch and shoot to perfection, Verbic drained a three pointer from 23 feet to give the Badgers a 46-45 lead with 1:55 to go in regulation.
After the basket, the Tigers quickly inbounded the ball to Kaas.
Kaas then threw an excellent outlet pass to Owen Adelman at half court.
Adelman swiftly drove from half court to the middle of the lane where a Badgers defender was there to stop him from directly going to the rim.
Making a quick decision, Adelman threaded the needle on a perfect bounce pass around a Badgers defender, finding Horvath in the low post.
Horvath then laid the basketball in off the glass to give the Tigers a 47-46 lead with 1:42 left to play.
Tigers junior Jake Vasko then made a tremendous defensive play causing a turnover to give the Tigers possession of the ball with 1:28 left to go in the contest.
With the Tigers trying to work the clock, Badgers senior Cam Beam made an excellent steal with under 50 seconds to go in the game.
The Tigers responded with a steal of their own when Horvath knocked the ball away from the Badgers guard and then dove on to the floor to secure a jump ball call and regain possession for the Tigers with 26.6 seconds to go.
The Badgers then pressured the ball in the back court and made a great steal, got fouled and went to the line with 15.8 seconds left to go.
However, the Badgers missed both foul shots as the Tigers retained a one point lead.
As soon as the Tigers rebounded the ball the Badgers fouled, placing the Tigers at the line.
After the Tigers extended the lead to 48-46 with 13.8 seconds left, the Badgers had a final opportunity to send the game into overtime or win the contest.
The Badgers ran a great play and got an open look from behind the arc, but the shot at the buzzer was just a bit strong and caromed off the back of the rim giving the Tigers a 48-46 victory.
Clearly, a main reason leading to the Tigers victory was their success at the foul line in the fourth quarter.
In fact, in the final quarter, the Tigers were 8-11 (72.7%) from the line, while the Badgers were 1-4 (25%).
For the Tigers, they put the ball in the hands of junior guard Brady Kaas who was 6 for 7 at the line in the final quarter.
In handling the pressure, Kaas said that he was reminded of the words his brother would often tell him, ‘Pressure makes diamonds’.
“As my brother says, ‘pressure makes diamonds’ and that’s really what it is,” Kaas said. “When there is pressure, I just take a deep breath and it all goes away.”
Coach Bargar said that Kaas just returned to the lineup after an injury and he is currently coming off the bench for the Tigers. However, in the intense pressure-filled battle between CVC Valley Division rivals, Kaas played the last twelve minutes of the game.
“(Brady) made his free throws,” Coach Bargar said. “He’s a very good defensive player and he’s kind of our secondary ball handler, he takes some pressure off Quin (Bargar). In a one point game, you got to make your free throws, and he did a great job of that.”
Coach Bargar said that of course the Tigers work on their free throws every day like all teams, but making free throws comes down to a player’s level of confidence.
“I think a lot of it (success at the line), is when they’re confident and they believe in themselves, which Brady is never going to back down from a challenge,” Coach Bargar said. “He’s a guy we have confidence in at the line.”
For the game the Tigers were led by Horvath (11 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal), Jake Vasko (9 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals), Kaas (8 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals), Bargar (7 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists), Jack Orazen (6 points, 4 rebounds), Brady DeVito (4 points, 1 rebound), Peter Fischer (2 points, 2 rebounds) and Adelman (1 point, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block).
The Badgers were led offensively by Verbic (18 points), Stute (17), Alex Bowman (9), and
Colton Miller-Gabbard (2).
With the victory over the Badgers, the Tigers have now won seven games in a row.
