GARRETTSVILLE, OH- Tuesday night in Garrettsville featured a non-league contest between the host Garfield G-MEN and the visiting Southeast Pirates. The G-MEN were looking to win their third in the last four games while the Pirates were looking to bounce back after a tough loss to PTC rival Rootstown.
The first quarter featured ten three point makes between the two teams with five of them coming from Pirates freshman guard Cohen Richardson who was red hot. It was a closely contested opening quarter as the G-MEN were able to withstand the Richardson onslaught from deep as they trailed only by three at 22-19 after one. Preston Gedeon hit three from deep for Garfield in the quarter.
Southeast Pirates Case Myers drives to the basket in the first quarter
The second quarter was the turning point in the game. After Garfield opened the scoring on a Cade Rock bucket inside, the Pirates scored the final 18 points of the quarter outscoring the G-MEN 18-2. Richardson dropped in 8 points including two more from deep to bring his first half point total to 23. The Pirates opened up a big 40-21 lead at the half after a six plus minute scoring drought by Garfield.
Southeast senior Case Myers opened the second half with an and-one conversion inside to stretch the scoring run to 21-0. An Aiden Hill three ball for Garfield finally stopped the bleeding. The Pirates would then rattle off seven straight including back to back buckets inside by leading scorer Garrett Sprutte to take their biggest lead of the night at 50-24. Garfield would end the quarter on a 9-4 run to cut the deficit to 61-44 heading to the fourth. Sprutte was big for the Pirates scoring 10 points in the quarter.
Southeast Pirates Garrett Sprutte scores inside
The G-MEN fought hard in the fourth quarter as they tried to claw their way back into this one. An Aiden Hill three ball midway through the quarter cut it to 14 at 69-55. Unfortunately for Garfield that's as close as they would get as Southeast would score 10 of the final 12 points of the game to take home the 79-57 win.
Garrett Sprutte, who came in leading Portage County scoring over 28 points per game, dropped in 27 points including 18 in the second half to go along with 10 rebounds. Cohen Richardson finished with 25 points on 7/11 from three point range.
Preston Gedeon had a nice game for Garfield with 22 points and four three balls.
The Pirates will host Warren JFK on Friday while the G-MEN look to bounce back at Bristol.
Unofficial stats:
Southeast:
Garrett Sprutte: 27 pts, 10 reb
Cohen Richardson: 25 pts, 7 three's
Zach Keto: 8 pts
Case Myers: 6 pts, 6 reb
Garfield:
Preston Gedeon: 22 pts
Aiden Hill: 11 pts
Cade Rock: 11 pts, 3 blocks