Maple Ohio — The Maple Mustangs (5-5) went into their Friday night matchup looking for another big win at home. Garfield (8-0) fresh off of a huge 60-57 win over Richmond was looking to stay undefeated. The Bulldogs improved to 9-0 with the win against Maple.
Both teams came out and made it a point of emphasis to key onto the opposing scoring guards. Dave Aniton and Kalin Allen took advantage of the attention on Kenyon Giles and got a few easy baskets.
Carter Jackson was an early bright spot for the Bulldogs in the first scoring their first five points.
Around the halfway mark Aaron Scales hit a three for the Mustangs, Giles got the assist. Deandre Jones made one of his own and Maple led 10-8 with four minutes to go.
Marcus Johnson started to find his rhythm later in the period. He knocked down a three and a floater to take Garfield’s first lead at two minutes. Garfield went into the second trailing 17-16.
Deandre Jones came out scoring back to back buckets including a three point play to tie it at 20. Maple appeared to gain momentum after an Aaron Scales three but Garfield shut it down.
Buckets from Carter Jackson and CJ Little put Garfield up 26-23 with 3:44 left going into a timeout. Garfield finished the quarter with an 11-2 run ending with Little finding Jones for an easy layup. The Bulldogs were up 37-25 at halftime.
The third was huge for Garfield, they started to get more urgent on both sides of the ball. The Bulldogs started to force turnovers pressing Maple while getting easy looks in the paint offensively. Deandre Jones hit a free throw and got some baskets down low and Jackson got an easy one as well. These plays extended the Bulldog lead to 45-32 with four minutes left.
The Mustangs wouldn’t lay down though, Scales knocked down another three and Aniton converted a three point play. Maple trailed 48-37 with three minutes to go.
Johnson and Jones ended the period with more easy finishes around the rim. Garfield led 54-41 going into the fourth.
Maple cut the lead to 58-46 two minutes into fourth after Giles went three for three on a free throw line trip.
From that point on Garfield took control and started to pull away. Jones hit a mid range jumper and Garfield continued to find easy looks in the paint.
Johnson drove to the rim for another layup, and so did Little. These buckets extended the lead to 65-49 and forced a timeout with three minutes left.
After a few more traded baskets from both teams Garfield ended up on top, winning 69-54.
I got the chance to speak with Head Coach for Garfield Sonny Johnson about the win.
“They’re just growing together," said Johnson. "When you got a team that loves the success of another player then you’re going to continue having a lot of success in growing together.”
Garfield will be back in action Thursday January 11th on the road against Bedford at 7:30 PM.