Ten Takeaways from Euclid vs. Garfield Heights
Euclid High School visited Garfield Heights High School Tuesday night, where some of Ohio's top talents squared up. Here are my 10 takeaways from an exciting game that ended with Garfield Heights pulling away late for a 57 - 49…
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Continue ReadingEuclid High School visited Garfield Heights High School Tuesday night, where some of Ohio's top talents squared up. Here are my 10 takeaways from an exciting game that ended with Garfield Heights pulling away late for a 57 - 49 victory.
1. The match-up to watch for in this showdown was Euclid's own, Garvin Clarke, up against Meechie Johnson of Garfield Heights. Clarke is Prep Hoop's current #4 2020 prospect, while Johnson leads the current 2021 class rankings. Clarke holds offers from Akron, Buffalo, Cleveland State, Florida A&M, and Youngstown State. Johnson is receiving lots of high-major interest, and holds offers from Ohio State, Georgetown, and UNLV, with more sure to follow. 2. Both of these young guards tried to make their marks early on. Clarke started the game off with a heavily contested 3 that fell short. Johnson responded by missing badly on his first shot attempt and being stopped at the rim on his first drive of the game. This is only worth noting because what followed began to explain the hype behind these two. 3. Garfield Heights as a team looked out of sorts and played with little to no control early on. Euclid raced out to a 9-0 lead before Garfield Heights got on the board. Euclid did a great job pressuring the ball early and forced a timeout a little over 5 minutes into the game, up 13-2. 4. Don't let the stocky frame of Euclid's Reggie Priah fool you. The 6'3” Senior can work inside or out. Priah opened the scoring for Euclid with a nice post move, but also spent a good amount of the game bringing the ball up the court for the Panthers and initiating their offense. Priah later had a chance to show off some of his range as well, knocking down two 3's in the 2nd Half. He would end the game with 10 points. 5. Following a shaky 1st Quarter, Garfield Heights wanted to ensure they got Freshman guard Sonny Johnson involved, running a play to have him come off a screen at the right wing to knock down a 3. That triple gave him the confidence to knock down another one just a few possessions later. Euclid wanted to prevent the budding star from going any further, quickly calling a timeout and assigning Garvin Clarke to follow him step for step. Sonny would finish with 10 points. 6. Another fun match-up to watch in this contest was Brison Waller of Garfield Heights against Mario Lacey of Euclid. Both guys are in their Senior season, and both had moments where they seemed to have their way around the rim. Waller was tough to keep off the glass all game long, and would add 10 points. Lacey contributed 15 to his team's point total, though his greatest impact may have been on the defensive end. Lacey was able to consistently alter his opponent's shots around the rim, and even added 3 huge blocks. 7. Euclid headed into the locker room at Halftime up 4 points, 29-25. The fact that they were able to hold Meechie Johnson to just 4 points had to have them feeling good about their chances to pull this one out. Those feelings did not last long. 8. Garvin Clarke got his team rolling again to start the 2nd Half with a quick steal and finished it off with a transition lay-up. Meechie responded by burying a heavily contested 3 just two possessions later. Before long, Johnson had 8 quick points to start the half, triggering Euclid to call a timeout just 3 minutes into the half. 9. After the timeout, Waller would add 2 more from the low post, giving Garfield Heights its first lead of the game. The script had quickly flipped. The guy that Euclid did not want to get cooking was hot and Euclid started to fall apart a bit after a very productive 1st Half. Meechie Johnson had 14 points in the 3rd Quarter alone. Clarke was quickly assigned to shadow M. Johnson's every move, but it would not be enough against the star scorer. Garfield Heights' 19-point 3rd Quarter explosion sent them to the last period up 40-38. 10. Clarke and Johnson decided to follow the general trend of the game into the 4th Quarter. Clarke opened things up with a game-tying layup, just to be killed by another Johnson 3-pointer. Sonny Johnson would get back into the fun by hitting a 3 of his own on the next possession, and Garfield Heights would not look back. Meechie would finish with 30 points in all, while Clark added 17 points and 4 steals to his team's losing effort.