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Weir High completes another comeback, sweep of Edison

GUARDING — Weir High’s Reed Reitter guards Edison’s Alec McBane on Tuesday. Also shown is Edison’s Anthony Sinicropi. (Photo by Andrew Grimm)

RICHMOND — Overcoming deficits and playing in close games has become normal for the Weir High boys basketball team.

It did both successfully on Tuesday night, defeating Edison, 62-56, in a hard-fought, comeback road win to get its ninth victory in its last 10 outings.

“We have played in a lot of these tight games, and we’re just used to it,” Weir High coach Mike Granato said. “Every game is that way. It doesn’t matter who we play or where we play. This is a great team win with a lot of contributions from a ton of guys.”

After Edison (5-7) started the fourth quarter on an 8-1 run to take a six-point lead, the Red Riders (9-3) came charging back, outscoring the Wildcats 18-6 the rest of the way.

“Our plan was to wear them out,” Granato said. “They have some excellent 3-point shooters. The big thing was we wanted to play our nine or 10 guys and keep it close and get to that last five minutes.

“Our kids showed a tremendous amount of poise going down the stretch.”

Factoring in who the opponent was, the game being as closely contested as it was did not surprise Granato.

“Both times we’ve played them it has been the same type of game,” he said. “These are two teams that play a similar style. If you look at the last four years, every game with them has been like this. Every game is tight. (Edison coach) Nate (Moses) and I are good friends, and our teams battle when we play one another.”

Despite Edison holding a 33-24 advantage in the rebounding department, the Red Riders did a better job of getting boards — including a few key ones on the defensive end late — in the second half.

“That was our big thing at halftime,” Granato said. “We told them we were giving up too many second chance points. They had 10 and we had two. It wasn’t what we were running or how we were running it … we had to get to the glass. In the last two minutes of the game, our guys did a great job.”

With the game deadlocked at 56-56 with less than two minutes to play, Tanner Mikula made a bucket and got fouled, making the foul shot for an old-fashioned 3-point play. Weir High held that advantage the rest of the way, adding key free throws from Luka Haught and Elijah Gillette down the stretch to close on a 6-0 run.

Mikula scored all seven of his points in the fourth quarter.

“He was getting a little frustrated,” Granato said. “He averages about 10 (points) a game, but he’s had a couple of bad shooting nights. I think the thing that defines Tanner as a player is, even though he missed his first six or seven shots, he kept playing. He did the other things that it takes to win the game. He kept working.”

The Wildcats were playing well of late also, coming off a close win over Indian Creek on Friday. This time, though, Moses’ bunch could not hang on.

“We have to give Weir a lot of credit, that is a very good basketball team,” he said. “They finished down the stretch. I’m happy with the effort. I thought the kids played hard. We were up six with four minutes left and couldn’t close it down the stretch.

“In games like that, against a team like that, if we don’t hit shots in the fourth quarter, we are going to come out on the other side of it.”

Edison started the game with a 7-0 run and held a 21-15 lead after the opening quarter. But, it was not able to duplicate that offensive success again the rest of the way.

“We have lows,” Moses said. “We have to find consistency on the offensive end.”

Gillette and Reed Reitter each netted 14 points for the Red Riders, while Haught finished with 13 points. Weir High also got several key contributions from its bench, with four of the five players to sub in finding the scoresheet.

“When you look at the scoring when we put our bench in, the score rarely varies,” Granato said. “It is our strength.”

Isaac Schmitz and Alec McBane each had 16 points to lead Edison, both scoring half of their points in the opening quarter.

Weir High travels to another rival, Brooke, on Friday night, while Edison takes on Buckeye 8 opponent Beaver Local.

GAME NOTES

¯ There were some words exchanged across the court as the teams left the floor following handshakes.

“It’s an emotional game,” Granato said. “It’s just guys going hard. That’s all.”

Moses told his team to use the frustration and Weir High’s celebration as motivation.

“Both teams wanted to win,” Moses said. “Sometimes it gets emotional. Chalk that up to us being frustrated and them being excited to win. They were very excited, as they should have been, and we were a little down. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.

“I enjoy when our kids are frustrated with losing because it shows they care. As we listened to Weir celebrating in the locker room, we told them that is our motivation for the next game.”

¯ The Red Riders won the jayvee game, 62-59, in overtime. Weir High was led by Skylar Jackson with 16 points, while Noah Woods topped Edison with 24 points.

(Grimm can be reached at agrimm@herladstaronline.com)

Weir High 62, Edison 56

Weir High 15-15-13-19 — 62

Edison 21-7-14-14 — 56

WEIR HIGH (9-3): Haught 5 2-3 13; Gillette 6 1-2 14; McCoy 0 0-0 0; Reitter 7 0-0 14; Mikula 3 1-1 7; Trupiano 1 0-0 2; Spencer 2 1-2 5; McUmar 0 0-0 0; Buffington 1 0-0 2; Nutter 2 1-2 5. TOTALS: 27 6-10 62.

EDISON (5-7): Sinicropi 2 1-1 6; Easter 2 0-0 4; Schmitz 7 0-1 16; Kinney 3 2-2 8; McBane 6 4-8 16; Pugh 1 0-0 2; McAfoose 1 0-0 2; Scott 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22 7-12 56.

3-POINT GOALS: Weir High 2 (Haught, Gillette); Edison 3 (Schmitz 2, Sinicropi). ASSISTS: Weir High 16 (Haught 4, Reitter 4); Edison 15 (Schmitz 4, Kinney 4). REBOUNDS: Weir High 24 (Reitter 7); Edison 33 (McBane 11). TURNOVERS: Weir High 15; Edison 21.

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