Lakewood, Ohio- The St. Ed's Eagles (8-0) coming off a highly impressive 66-61 win over Lutheran East Wednesday, hosted an unfamiliar name to some in the Northeast Ohio area. Bloomfield Hills (6-1) is an extremely underrated team with skilled shooters such as senior guard Noah Adamczyk and freshman guard Drew Wilson.
The Eagles started fast and sound both offensively and defensively. 6'5" senior forward Wendell Henry used his size to create an early bucket to get the Eagles on the board first. Four of the five starters scored within the first five minutes of the game. Coach Eric Flannery showed those in attendance exactly why his team is "#BUILTDIFFERENT". 6'7" senior Cameron Grant used his speed and muscled frame to get over two defenders for a strong layup to get the Eagles up 15 at one point in the quarter.
Closing out the quarter, Flannery did what most coaches typically don't do early in a game which was a near full platoon swap bringing in a lot of his juniors giving them playing time to gel on the court as a unit. It had no effect on the momentum as the reserves were having their way with the Black Hawks starters. Junior guard Joey Scarpitti came out the bench firing matching the energy set by the starters. He knocked down a pair of three's and a pair of free throws.
The duo of Wilson and Adamczyk combined for 10 points in the first quarter and frankly were the only consistent scorers throughout the night. The Eagles would go on to lead 24-14 at the end of the first.
In the second quarter, Flannery mixed in a few starters with reserve players and outscored Bloomfield Hills 22-14. At one point in the quarter, they were up 20 forcing Flannery to play his second unit for majority of the quarter. The Eagles would go on to take a comfortable 46-28 halftime lead. Wilson led all scores with 10 points.
Adamczyk came out the halftime break guns blazing. He scored 25 of his game-high 29 points in the third and fourth quarters knocking down four (including three straight in the fourth) three's that kissed the net each time. That would not be enough for the mighty Eagles whom shared the ball so well, seven different players scored a bucket in the third. They would end the third up 66-45.
Flannery stuck with his platoon switch for the fourth with junior's Ukize Nshungu and Brian Sullivan leading the way. The two combined for 14 of the teams 23 total quarter points. The 6'2" guard would lead the team in points with 13 as the Eagles defeated the Black Hawks 89-62 to remain perfect on the season at 9-0.
Next up for the Eagles is a home game versus Spire Institute on Tuesday at 5:30pm.
I talked with St. Ed's coach Eric Flannery after the game.
This game recap is brought to you by Brunswick Auto Mart