It’s hard to find out a lot about a team in mid-December, but the Avon Eagles found out about themselves this past week.
There was a lot of good in the 55-49 loss to Avon Lake on Dec. 13. Avon led, 43-33, in the fourth quarter, and gave up a 17-0 run to lose its first game of the season.
Against North Ridgeville on Dec. 16, the Eagles led, 46-38, with four minutes left. Once again, the lead dwindled to one point in the final minute. However, in just three days, this team found a way to pull this game out instead of letting it go the other way. Forcing two turnovers in the final seconds, Avon hung on, 49-47.
“The fourth quarter was pretty crazy,” said junior forward Nate Farley. “Against Lake in the fourth quarter, we fell apart and we worked on that in practice. We worked on handling pressure, and we did a pretty decent job of it this game.”
So far this season, Avon Lake and North Ridgeville have been the best teams in the area other than the Eagles. The Shoremen remains undefeated now at 5-0 after a big 53-21 win over Midview on Dec. 16. North Ridgeville was undefeated at 5-0 prior to facing Avon, and is still going to be contending for the SWC title all season long. If it wasn’t clear after last week’s dominant win over Elyria, Avon belongs in that group, too.
“We said after this week, we’re going to find out a lot about our team,” said Avon coach Mike Fitch. “Are we going to cave in or are we going to believe in ourselves? They believed in themselves, I could see a little doubt in their head with about four minutes left. I called a timeout and looked at them and said, ‘we believe in you, you’re on this team because we believe in you, you have to believe in yourselves’. I think they started to.”
Physicality has been the Eagles’ identity on the court, but that belief has become a motto of sorts. Avon hasn’t been known for its basketball, but the Eagles are out to change that. Last season, Avon went 4-18 and only won one SWC game. So far this season in four total games, they’re 3-1 with two SWC wins. There has been a whole lot of believing by the Eagles, and the belief of becoming a good program is now reality.
“It says a lot about our coaching staff, they’ve done so much this year to get us to where we are from where we were last year,” said senior guard Matt Fischer. “Our teammates too, there’s no I in team, we’ve all had to buy in and work hard.”
Fitch was right in saying that the Eagles would find out a lot about themselves after facing Avon Lake and North Ridgeville. Come to find out, it was a lot of good.
