AVON, Ohio — The beginning of the high-school girls basketball season couldn’t have gone much worse for Avon's Eagles, but things have gotten better recently.
The season started with five losses in six games, but on Wednesday the Eagles pulled their second consecutive upset over a team ranked in the cleveland.com Top 25, holding on to defeat No. 7 Olmsted Falls, 49-47. Avon has battled its way back to .500 with an 8-8 mark, 6-7 in the rugged Southwestern Conference. The Bulldogs, who entered the game having won seven in a row, fall to 14-3 and 12-1.
“This is just awesome,” said senior Elizabeth Flynn, who led all scorers with 20 points. “I don’t think we’ve beaten them since my sophomore year. We’ve been doing a lot better recently. We had a rough beginning of the season, for sure. But I feel like we’re growing as a team and each game we’re getting better and more comfortable with playing with each other.”
On Saturday Avon edged then-No. 23 Berea-Midpark, 54-52. The two victories came with assistant coach Joe Schafer leading the way, as head coach Meghan Larrick has been away on maternity leave.
“The kids could have folded when they lost five in a row early in the season,” Schafer said. “But they come to practice every day and work hard. We’ve just been missing a quarter here and a quarter there. Now they’re starting to believe. These last few games we’ve felt like we’re in a tournament situation. We’re just hoping to keep building on what we’re doing. We’re just trying to compete. The girls are working hard and that’s all you can ask of them.”
The first quarter had blowout written all over it, as Olmsted Falls senior Clare Kelly swished all four 3-pointers she attempted, and the Bulldogs bounced out to a 21-8 lead. Avon played man-to-man defense in the opening eight minutes, but soon switched to a 1-2-2 zone. Suddenly, the Bulldogs were piling up the turnovers while struggling to score 26 points in the final three periods.
“We’ve always alternated between that zone and man-to-man,” Flynn said. “I feel like that helps us and causes their offense not to get comfortable and messes them up and forces some turnovers.”
Kelly led the Bulldogs in scoring, but after the big first quarter she finished with 16 points. Nobody else reached double figures for Olmsted Falls, as Danielle Stevens had eight and Grace Simon had seven. The big problem for the Bulldogs was the turnovers, which totaled 20, 19 in the first three quarters.
“You have to give Avon a lot of credit,” Olmsted Falls coach Jordan Eaton said. “They did a good job. They’re long, and they extended their zone. They got a bunch of deflections and turned us over. They did a really good job.”
With Flynn scoring nine points, the Eagles fought their way back into the game in the second period, which ended with the visitors on top, 27-24. Early in the third quarter Olmsted Falls got the lead back up to eight, 34-26, before Avon ended the period on a 13-2 run, with seven points coming from freshman Abby Liber.
Liber, who came off the bench, hit a desperation heave at the buzzer from just in front of the Avon bench to give the Eagles a 39-36 lead entering the fourth period.
The teams traded baskets in the fourth period until Stevens hit a layup off a spectacular behind-the-back pass from Kelly with 3:31 to play, giving the Bulldogs a 45-43 lead. Flynn then hit a 3-pointer and a driving layup to put Avon back on top, 48-45.
With 1:06 to play, Stevens hit a short jumper in the lane to cut it to 48-47 and later came up with a big defensive play, deflecting the ball off the foot of an Avon player to give the Bulldogs a chance to take the lead. However, an open 15-footer from the right elbow bounced off the rim, with Flynn grabbing the rebound and passing it to Liber, who split two free throws with 6.7 seconds remaining.
With the loss, the Bulldogs fall into a first-place tie with Westlake in SWC play. The Demons were at the game, as their contest with Berea-Midpark was postponed. Olmsted Falls hosts Westlake Saturday afternoon, but Eaton said this is anything but a one-game showdown for the league crown.
“Going 18-0 in this league would have been really, really difficult,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has ever done it. The league’s good. It’s really good. That’s why the games are close. There are six, seven teams and maybe more in the league that are good, and they can challenge you on a nightly basis. Turn it over a few more times than you usually do and miss a few more shots than you usually do, and you can lose by two.”
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