KARL PEARSON
AUSTINBURG TOWNSHIP — Grand River Academy boys basketball coach Josh Hartz gave seniors Brant O’Brien, Jackson Berry and Grant Miller the night off Tuesday.
They weren’t missed.
They were not held out because of illness, injury or disciplinary reasons. But Hartz hopes the way their teammates played in a 70-47 victory over Lawrence Academy showed them his expectations in terms of team play for upcoming games.
“The last couple weeks, we’ve played a lot of individual ball, so in practice we’ve worked real hard on the team concept,” Hartz said. “I thought we shared the ball well tonight. I was extremely pleased with the way we played.
“It made me feel happy that kids who don’t usually get to play got to play a lot. I hope this makes the boys who didn’t play hungry and shows them a true team concept.”
Sophomore guard Brady Prewitt got the message. He led the Eagles (6-6) with 20 points, but also had four steals and three assists and helped orchestrate a GRA offense that had 10 of 11 players scoring and shot 47.7 percent (31 of 65) from the field.
“I thought the team ran real well,” the guard from Columbus said. “We’d had a couple off games. It was important to get teamwork. If you’re not a team player, why be on the team? I thought we worked real well as a team.”
Bryce Buchanan joined Prewitt with 12 points. Six other Eagles had at least four points, with Nick Roman hitting for nine, Mitch Pressel adding seven and seven rebounds and Brian Shea scoring six and blocking three shots. That easily countered a 15-point, 10-rebound night from Lawrence’s George Zilich and a 14-point, eight-rebound effort from Brandon Gee.
Sixteen first-quarter turnovers did in Lawrence (5-13) as GRA grabbed a 19-8 lead. The Lions cut the deficit to 34-25 by halftime, but the Eagles had the issue settled at 54-34 after three quarters.
“Their 3-2 zone kept us from getting into our offense,” Lawrence coach Dan Lawrence said. “We couldn’t get in a flow.”
