Lorain trailed, 19-6, in the second quarter, but made it a one-possession game late in the fourth quarter Dec. 5.
In a nonconference showdown with Cleveland Central Catholic, Lorain’s cold start became the difference, as the Titans fell, 50-47.
Led by guard Asiah Kielian’s 20 points in the second half, Lorain turned the fourth quarter into a tightly contested match. He scored a total of 22 points.
“I don’t think that (Kielian) forced anything. I think that he did a good job of letting the game come to him. He did a good job of looking for his teammates. I think that he had a complete game today,” Lorain coach Matthew Kielian said.
Lorain once trailed, 40-37, and had a chance to force overtime on the last possession. The slow start was too much to overcome.
“I’ll give (Cleveland Central Catholic) credit, but at the same time, we need to put the ball in the basket,” Asiah Kielian said. “I thought we had some open looks. We looked for one another. We emphasize trying to make that extra pass and focusing a little bit more on assists.”
Ironmen coach Michael Duncan applauded his defense’s effort in the first quarter to hold Lorain to four points. The key was to focus on its top scorers, especially Kielian.
“Coming into the game (Jai’den Guerra-Howard, Isaiah Rowser and Kielian) are fantastic scorers,” he said. “(Kielian) lit us up for two years in a row. Coming into the game, we were trying to slow those guys down and give them extra attention. Coach (Kielian) does a great job, and his sons play hard. We had to be able to defend those guys and try to slow them down.”
CCC’s top scorer was Andrew McCullough, but five other players scored at least five points.
CCC also held the size advantage. In turn, that resulted in a 31-20 rebounding advantage. Controlling the boards kept Lorain to one shot down the home stretch to maintain the lead.
“In our first game, we got dominated on the boards (by Warren JFK). We were outrebounded by 22,” Duncan said. “Going back into practice and going over film, we tried to really emphasize rebounding, boxing out and trying to be physical. That’s been the Central Catholic way since I’ve played.”
Lorain put up a valiant effort to come back. Coach Kielian wants his team to put four quarters together.
“We got into some foul trouble,” he said. “I think we had three guys with two fouls early (in the second quarter), which kind of prevented us from applying a little bit more pressure. We had to be cautious on fouling. There are some things that we have to work on.”
Lorain trailed, 28-17, at halftime. Coach Kielian decided to pick up the pace on defense, which put the offense in more of a fluent state to enable scoring. Lorain opened the second half with a 6-0 run and eventually cut the deficit to 37-32 to start the fourth quarter.
The game appeared to be over in the last seconds. Josh Evans stole the ball and assisted a 3-pointer to Julian Daniels. But CCC missed both free throws. Lorain was unable to make a shot past halfcourt to force overtime.
Guerra-Howard was Lorain’s second-leading scorer with 10 points.
Lorain dropped to 0-3 in a matter of five days. The Titans will host defending Division I district champion Garfield Heights on Dec. 7.
