Hawks’ basketball is short on threes, still beat Tigers

“It is such a big win in a lot of ways,” said Hawken Coach Josh Nugent. “We had gone through it a couple of times in the past weeks against Orange and West Geauga. It is really tough to beat a team twice in a year.”

It marks the first time since Nugent became head coach that the Hawks (10-10, 8-6) swept Chagrin Falls in the regular season.

The Hawks also achieved another first by clinching a victory against Chagrin Falls despite not making a 3-point shot for the first time this season.

“I didnt’ know it until it was brought to my attention late,” said the fourth-year Hawks’ coach. “You are just coaching in the moment. Part of it is that we told our guys that we really wanted to attack the rim and really wanted to make an effort to do stuff at the rim and they took it and ran with it and did a great job.”

In addition to earning the regular season sweep against their conference foe, the Hawks posted another win right before voting began to determine playoff seeding for the Division II postseason.

Hawken eventually earned the 12th seed in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II Region 5, Northeast 2 sectional.

According to the fourth-year coach, the Hawks are also closer to achieving another one of their postseason goals, which was to finish in the top two in the CVC Chagrin Division.

Conference powerhouse Richmond Heights already wrapped up outright ownership of the CVC Chagrin Division title, but the win against the Tigers now has moved Hawken into second place in the division.

Following a thrilling victory against prep school rival University School on Jan. 21, Hawken suffered a three-game losing streak including losses against its conference rivals, the Lions and the Wolverines.

“We just lost our focus,” said freshman guard Da’Ron Hill. “We just did not play with a lot of energy compared to the other games we played but we are starting to pick up our energy and pick where we left off and hope to play how we played against University School against other teams.”

For the Tigers (10-7, 7-7), despite the loss against Hawken, they earned the eighth seed in the Division III tournament.

For the first time in over two decades, Chagrin Falls was assigned to Division III before the season started, based on the school’s enrollment numbers.

According to Chagrin Falls Coach David Bargar, his team can only prepare so much for the unknown.

The Tigers are familiar with a few of their Division III rivals such as Beachwood and Perry but are ultimately the new kids on the block.

“It is all new to us,” said the 18-year coach. “We have no idea what teams will think of us. We have a pretty decent resume as far as the strength of schedule and the number of Division I and Division II wins we have compared to some others. We feel pretty good if we get the right match-up that we can do some stuff, but time will tell on that.”

Hawken started fast in the first period by taking a 7-1 advantage but the Tigers responded with a 9-3 run to tie the score at 10-10.

The Hawks controlled the tempo in their first meeting against Chagrin Falls on Dec. 21, but on Friday, the Tigers were ready to run the floor with their conference rival at the beginning of the game and took a 12-11 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

“We certainly did a better job with it,” said Bargar. “Hawken certainly had a lot of emotion early on in the game and we stabilized the game and got it into a position where it was going to be a back-and-forth game for the rest of the way so we felt pretty good about that.”

Chagrin Falls’ senior forward James Kosmides feasted inside at the beginning of the second quarter and scored six points, pushing the Tigers out to a 25-19 lead.

In addition to scoring, the Tigers’ 6-foot-5 post player and shot-blocker patrolled the paint and rejected four shots.

The Hawks prevented Chagrin Falls from running away with the game by forcing four turnovers and went on an 8-2 run, tying the game at 27-27 at halftime.

“We noticed we had to pick it up on defense to slow them down and we did a good job,” said the 6-foot freshman Hill. “We planned out a defense in the second half to stop Kosmides from dominating in the paint and make sure we had had defensive help on him.”

The Hawks’ momentum continued in the third quarter fueled by a 9-4 scoring spree to take a five-point advantage in the middle of the period.

Hawken’s outside shots were not falling but they knocked down multiple mid-range shots and eventually started finishing at the rim.

Six different Hawk players scored in the third period, compared to only four Chagrin Falls players tallying points and Hawken took a 41-37 lead at the end of the quarter.

Kosmides tried sparking Chagrin Falls in the fourth quarter but the Tigers played right into Hawken’s hands by force-feeding the ball to Kosmides and he could not beat the double team and scored only seven points on three-of-11 shooting.

Despite outshooting Hawken by a 9-0 on 3-pointers, Bargar acknowledged his team could not match the Hawks’ perimeter shooting inside the paint.

“We do not shoot the ball from the perimeter enough to keep teams honest,” he said. “Like on Friday night, when we get easy ones, we miss them and we cannot overcome that.”

Following their regular season home finale against Andrews Osborne Academy on Wednesday night, Hawken will face off against CVC foe Beachwood on the road at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Following a home game against Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin on Tuesday evening, the Tigers will travel to Richmond Heights at 6:45 p.m. Friday then stay on the road to play Aurora at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.