Dominick Gramaglia scored 14 points and had four rebounds to help lead Eaton to a 64-48 win over Talawanda on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
Eddie Mowen Jr. | The Register-Herald
EATON — A fast start lifted Eaton’s boys’ basketball team to a second straight win to open the season.
The Eagles used a 13-2 run midway through the first quarter to pull away from visiting Talawanda en route to a 64-48 win on Tuesday, Dec. 5.
“I think that was all predicated on some of the good defense we had, kind of put us in positions to push the ball up the floor, get good looks,” Eaton coach Sean Sims said. “I was very happy with our ball movement and trying to find the right shot. And there’s not a lot of selfishness on our team, which is nice. I definitely think that we are doing a better job of kind of sharing. Yeah, that’s a great start and to have a cushion like that is really nice to just kind of work on things and take our time and kind of get better through the game.”
Eaton connected on five 3-pointers and got several baskets in transition in the first quarter to open a 26-11 lead.
“We were definitely trying to improve on our defense a little bit and I thought that there were some really good spurts in the game that we were able to do that,” Sims said.
Ramy Ahmed led the Eagles with 22 points, five rebounds, three assists and seven steals.
Dominick Gramaglia scored 14 points and had four rebounds.
Conner Bach chipped in with nine points, six rebounds and three assists.
Leslie Orr contributed seven points, six rebounds and a blocked shot.
“Ramy had a great game, but I definitely got to give a lot of credit to Leslie,” Sims said. “He’s kind of like our glue guy. He’s kind of like our safety on defense. Kind of helps navigate things, sets a lot of screens, gets a lot of like junk points and whatnot. And I really appreciate the fact that he buys into whatever he’s got to do to help the team win. And today he got opportunities to get some extra cleanup boards, but he was just all around the rim and he’s so athletic, and he’s fast and he was definitely a huge component.”
Eaton forced the Brave into 15 turnovers which led to several easy baskets.
“We really wanted to focus on trying to shut down their two best players which are lights out three-point shooters, one ended up getting 20 or 22,” Sims said. “But I think the other one didn’t score very much. We knew that was probably the case and that would give us the best chance to win.”
Eaton struggled in the second quarter when the Brave switched to a zone defense which caused the Eagles to slow the tempo and commit a few turnovers.
“I thought we were a little chaotic a little bit offensively in the first half, I think we had seven or eight turnovers. And nine or 10 is kind of like our magic number,” Sims said. “That kind of put us on a little bit of a pickle but I thought that we attacked and transition really well. I thought that we got to the paint and got some good looks. So, I think we’re continuing to make improvements especially just from (National) Trail on to this one and then kind of get ready for a big opponent and Brookville on Friday.”
Eaton saw its lead slip to 10 early in the third quarter (33-23) before going on a 12-2 run for a 43-25 lead.
A 12-2 run to begin the fourth quarter turned a 50-38 lead into a 62-40 lead with just over four minutes left in the game.
Eaton (2-0) is scheduled to host Brookville in their Southwestern Buckeye League opener on Friday, Dec. 8.
