Cagers Streak Ends to Reimer Rd
Dec. 13, 2022—Wadsworth, Oh
In what is considered the most intense rivalry in the area concerning independent teams, Reimer Rd up ended the Cagers 54-37. It was a game in which the Golden Eagles (5-2) would dominate just about every phase of the contest.
After Reimer won the opening tip, they proceeded to nail 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions forcing the Cagers to call a timeout 90 seconds into the game. The Cagers looked out of sync. That stands to reason having only had four official practices. Practices or not, there was a game to play, and it was mighty close to being an early blow out. Reimer Rd utilized a box and 1 defense on Eli Stanley, the Cagers standout shooter. This confused the Cagers. “Coach Turner is a good coach and he remembered how Eli lit them up last year, so he put a box and one against us. Heck, we haven’t had time to put in a real offense let alone know how to deal with a box and one. However, we find solutions not excuses and after that timeout, we found solutions,” said head coach Doug Hamsher. After the Cagers regrouped, Mark Gal would start things off with a drive to the hoop and bucket. Preston Demiter would follow up a miss with a put back of his own. Ruben Belodedici would nail an outside shot and lickety split we had a tie ball game at 6-6. Gal would add another two buckets and Demiter would hit one of two from the line and by the end of 8 minutes the Cagers had fought back to take the lead 11-10.
The second quarter was a back-and-forth affair with each team trading buckets early. Jay Hanzie hit one of two from the charity stripe to put the Cagers up 14-13 with about four minutes to go in the half. That’s when things started to go sour for the crimson, gray, and blue. Offensively the Cagers could not find the bucket, and Reimer Rd got hot from mid-range. “We did not communicate well, threw the ball away, and when we did get open looks, we couldn’t connect. That’s a recipe for disaster,” said Hamsher. Things were not looking good with the Cagers down 25-14 with just over two minutes to play in the half. Gal would come up big in the frame by scoring the last five points for the struggling Cagers to keep the visitors in striking distance going into the half down 25-19.
The second half started slow for the Cagers. The offense struggled to find consistency and continuity. Reimer switched to a man-to-man defense and caused all sorts of havoc for the Cager guards making it hard for them to start the offensive sets. And if the Cagers got an open look, it was rushed and rarely found the bottom of the net. The game plan worked. On the other side Reimer Rd looked like a well-oiled machine and extended the lead to 38-26.
Again, testament to the culture of the Cagers, there wasn’t an ounce of quit in these boys. Right out of the gate Reimer would balloon the lead to 17 points in the fourth quarter. The Cager faithful had long faces sitting in the stands, but then the Cagers made a run. Jay Hanzie would get into the game and become a presence down low. He would work his way to the foul line four times and connect on all four. Gal would drive to the hoop and kick it out to Stanley who would bury a three deep in the left corner. Hanzie would follow that up with a hoop and things looked good and the Cager faithful were on their feet! But the Golden Eagles would drain a deep 3-pointer that took the wind out of the Cager sails. After that the Cagers could only muster two more points in the frame. The Golden Eagles spread the floor and used their strong guard play to take time off the clock forcing the Cagers to gamble. That led to easy buckets. The Cagers were then forced to foul to try and stay in the game. Reimer would hit 5-8 FT in the final two minutes to pull out the victory and end the Cagers 16-game regular season win streak. “The streak had to end sometime. But I really believe that if this team comes together and plays the right way, we can be pretty good,” said Hamsher. For the game, Gal had a team high 11 points, Hazie -8, Belodedici -7, Stanley -6, and Demiter had 3 to round out the scoring column. Next up for the Cagers is Wooster Christian School.
