By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The wait is over.

After weeks of watching his team sputter on offense and struggle to hit shots consistently, Garfield head coach Andrew Olesky finally got to see things differently on Friday.

Garfield’s Aidan Hill pulls down a third-quarter rebound.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

Though, it did take three quarters for it to materialize.

But once they got there, the G-Men were like an avalanche and too much for the visiting Southeast Pirates to keep up with in what became a 71-48 Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference victory for the G-Men.

The two teams battled relatively closely throughout the first three quarters, but that changed at the start of the fourth quarter.

That’s when the G-Men (10-4, 5-2 MVAC) scored 19 unanswered points to turn a close 46-41 advantage to a comfortable 65-41 lead.

“The way we played in the fourth quarter, it was nice to see,” Olesky said. “We have been waiting for that and it was nice to finally get out and play how we want to play offensively.”

There was no secret formula for Garfield’s offensive blitz.

Instead, it was just a matter of connecting all of the ingredients together.

Strong defense, rebounding, pushing in transition and hitting shots.

The G-Men did all of those things — very well — in the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter alone, Garfield had 15 rebounds and scored 25 points.

Senior guard Preston Gedeon scored nine points in the fourth quarter and 18 of his game-high 24 points in the second half. He connected on 5-of-9 of his 3-point attempts for the game.

Garfield’s Aidan Hill (1) contests the shot of Southeast’s Nathanael Rivera.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

As important as his points were, the G-Men were fueled by the inside presence of Cade Rock, Nick Edic and Aidan Hill.

All three stand at 6-foot-4, with long arms and strong, athletic frames.

It’s just that Olesky has to remind them of all that, at times.

On Friday, it came in the form of a first-quarter timeout shortly after Southeast built a 7-2 lead and switched to a zone defense and the G-Men struggled to find the right shot against it.

It was reminiscent of recent losses for Garfield, so Olesky called for the break so that he could reset his team.

It worked.

In three successive possessions, height got the G-Men back into the game.

First the ball was fed into the high-post, where Rock received the pass and immediately delivered a pass to the low-post for an Edic layup.

The next time, the two switched roles. Edic came to the high-post and delivered low-post to Rock for a layup. The third score of the series came from Rock, who went above the crowd to rebound a missed shot and lay it in all in one leap.

Southeast’s Cohen Richardson (right) drives on the wing against Garfield’s Brandyn Bogucki.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

Those three plays set a new identity for the G-Men that they were able to maintain throughout the rest of the game.

“Sometimes I have to remind those three of how tall they are and how strong they are,” Olesky said.

By halftime, Garfield led 23-18.

For Southeast (8-7, 3-4 MVAC), it survived ice cold 1-for-14 shooting in the second quarter to remain within five at halftime by turning the ball over only once in the first half. The Pirates had just five turnovers for the entire game.

Southeast found its offensive pop in the third quarter, scoring 23 points. The problem for the Pirates was that the G-Men started to heat up in the third quarter, too, scoring 23 of their own.

Braeden Walden was the hot shooter for the Pirates in the third quarter, scoring 12 of his 13 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

The offensive efficiency only carried over to the fourth quarter for the G-Men, however.

Gedeon was joined in double figures by Edic, who had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

Rock and Hill did not reach double-digits, but their fingerprints were all over the win.

Hill finished with six points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

Rock’s line included eight points, 13 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots.

“That has become a typical game for Cade. He can just do so many things for us,” Olesky said. “For someone who is 6-foot-4, he does not get as many touches on the block that a typical 90’s post player would have gotten, but we put Cade in spots that we know he can help us out, and he is in those spots for a reason. He really delivered tonight.”

Joining Walden in double-figure scoring for the Pirates was Cohen Richardson, who scored a team-high 17 points. He also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Southeast’s shooting numbers for the game included 19-of-64 (30 percent) from the field and 4-of-34 (12 percent) from 3-point range.