By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

The Southeast boys basketball team has been off the charts thus far this season.

So much so that the Pirates’ 57-45 home win Dec. 19 over Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference foe Brookfield produced its smallest victory margin of the young season.

They have won all five of their games overall and are 3-0 in the MVAC following Tuesday’s win at LaBrae.

“It was pretty close all the way, but we kept the lead at six to eight points throughout the game,” head coach Matt Dillon said of his team’s victory over the Warriors. “Brookfield is a team that can score a lot of points, but defensively we played very, very well. We moved the ball well on offense and had multiple kids score, which is important for us.”

Pacing Southeast were junior guard Cohen Richardson and sophomore guard Bradley Dillon.

Richardson scored 22 points and had 11 rebounds, two assists and four steals, while Dillon tallied 21 points, five assists and a steal.

“Cohen played very well. He started off hot, making some outside shots. He continued to play well throughout the next couple quarters,” said Dillon. “Bradley doesn’t normally score like that, but he played pretty well.”

Richardon’s hot shooting included four 3-pointers in the first quarter. He buried another in the second quarter and finished with six for the game.

He was not alone from finding the stroke from long distance in the first quarter.

Bradley Dillon also hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening eight minutes, giving the Pirates all 18 of their first-quarter points on shots from behind the arc.

Two sophomores, point guard Caden Dillon and forward Devyn Miller, were solid. Dillon had five points, four assists and three steals; Miller had five points, three rebounds and three assists.

“Brookfield presses a lot, but Caden handled the ball very well. We didn’t have very many turnovers,” said the coach. “Devyn didn’t score a lot, but we were real pleased with how he played on the defensive end. He was able to limit one of their better offensive guys.”

Next up for Southeast is a Portage County rival showdown at Rootstown on Saturday.