No matter who steps on the floor for North Ridgeville, the Rangers can fill it up.
With point guard Griffin Turay out for the foreseeable future on crutches and Collin Jones battling foul trouble in the second half against Holy Name on Dec. 5, someone else had to step up. The others did as North Ridgeville pulled away in the second half for a 71-57 victory.
Jones scored 17 points in the first half, but was held to only four in the second half as he sat down for most of it with fouls racking up. In his absence, Owen Pawul scored 16 second-half points on the way to 18 total. Jayden Parish knocked down four 3-pointers in the second half to finish with 14 points.
“We just had that next-man-up mentality,” Pawul said. “Everyone on the bench was up and ready. When we have guys that go down or are in foul trouble toward the end of the game, everyone just has to be ready off the bench.”
The offense was going to look different without Turay handling the ball, especially since the Rangers had zero practices to prepare being without him. There were clear-cut situations where he was sorely missed trying to handle Holy Name’s pressure or making the right pass, but the reserve guards got better as the game went on.
Junior Kyle Miller and freshman Luke Rowe got to handle the ball in the backcourt with the lead late in the game. There were ups and downs, but overall, the Rangers passed their first test without Turay.
“Losing Griff is huge, especially since we didn’t get a chance to prepare,” North Ridgeville coach Ben Chase said. “We understood how hard it is to get rebounds without another 6-5 dude on the floor. We understood how hard it is to break the press without Griff. He’s a one-man press break. I’m really proud of our guys for making enough plays to get it done tonight.”
There were rebounding concerns. Holy Name’s tandem of Max Bollin (30 points) and Drew Styers (20 points) was hard to stop. There were more than one obstacle to overcome in this game, but the Rangers did it.
The first half featured a lot of back-and-forth between Jones and Bollin. Jones’ 17 first-half points merely outscored Bollin’s 20 as the Rangers took an eight-point lead into the locker room. Heading into the break, Miller was Ridgeville’s next leading scorer with six.
Jones was still on the court early in the third quarter, but the rest of the team helped guide a 7-2 run to pull away a bit. Pawul scored twice and Parish drained a triple to extend the lead to 13. Jones then got involved with a basket to reach the largest lead of the game of 15 up to that point.
While Turay couldn’t suit up, having a scorer such as Jones still gives North Ridgeville a dynamic element to its offense. However, it’s hard to play almost an entire half with your two best players. The lead sat at 12 entering the fourth quarter where Jones picked up his fourth foul.
Styers had 13 second-half points of his own for Holy Name, and the Green Wave cut the deficit down to eight with baskets from him and Bollin. The rest of the team combined for seven points.
The Rangers rallied and continued scoring baskets. The lead got down to as low as seven and Parish made a 3-pointer. He hit another to extend the lead to 13 with three minutes left. Pawul scored 10 points in the fourth, Charlie Steinmetz was making plays and Rowe and Miller handled the pressure better. Jones was happy for his teammates who stepped up in his absence.
“I’m just proud of my guys, especially stepping up with Griffin out right now,” Jones said. “It really warms my heart when people step up, and it’s just good. I love winning.”
It won’t be able to replace Turay’s capabilities on the floor, but North Ridgeville now gets 10 days to prepare before its next game Dec. 15 against Olmsted Falls. In the meantime, the Rangers showed what they can do if a spark is needed.
“The silver lining of it is that we have 10 days until our next game,” Chase said. “Obviously that’s a conference game, and I don’t know if Griff will be ready for that, but it’ll give him that much time to get better and for us to make our changes.”
