By Phil Keren

Correspondent

Playing on the road is always a tall order for any team. It becomes even tougher when the visitors struggle to take advantage of some early scoring opportunities and soon find themselves trailing by double digits.

The Streetsboro Rockets found themselves facing a 12-point deficit at the end of the first quarter of what ended up being a 72-54 loss to Woodridge.

Streetsboro head coach Nick Marcini said he thought his team played strong defense at the start and noted his players got to the rim plenty of times in the first period but struggled to score.

The Rockets missed layups and some other shots from short range.

“We could’ve had 14, 16 points right there,” Marcini said. “You dig yourself that big hole right away and now you’re starting to speed up things on the defensive end.”

When the Rockets started to press a bit on defense, they ended up giving some transition jump shots to Woodridge.

“(Playing) a good basketball team, you can’t afford to make those easy mistakes,” Marcini said. “I don’t think we did a great job of taking care of the basketball. Bad turnovers.”

About 3 minutes into the game, Streetsboro senior guard Ethan Laryea scored on a baseline drive to give the Rockets a 2-0 lead. Woodridge then scored 13 unanswered points during the second half of the first quarter. Bulldog sophomore forward Carter Maxa scored on a turnaround jumper in the paint and swished two three-pointers, while senior guard Blake

Williams made a putback, a baseline jumper and a trey. A driving layup by Laryea ended the Bulldog run, but the first quarter ended with Streetsboro trailing Woodridge, 16-4.

Streetsboro then spent the rest of the game trying to chip away at the lead but were never able to cut Woodridge’s lead to less than 10. Whenever the Rockets put together a few strong offensive possessions, Woodridge seemed to answer with a three-pointer or a breakaway layup or dunk.

Laryea made another layup at the start of the second period to reduce Woodridge’s advantage to 16-6. This time, the Bulldogs responded with a 14-3 run that opened up a 30-9 lead at the halfway mark of the second quarter. That scoring surge included seven more points from Maxa (two of those coming on a dunk), and four from another sophomore, guard Jon Tyree (a dunk and a layup).

Trailing 33-11, Streetsboro outscored Woodridge 11-6 in the final 2 1/2 minutes of the second quarter and 6-0 in the final 90 seconds. All 11 of those points were scored by senior guard Ryan Roscoe. He recorded an old-fashioned three-point play, netted four free throws, and closed out the half with a pair of layups on strong drives to the hoop. The teams went to the locker room with Woodridge leading, 39-22.

“These guys are going to play hard,” Marcini said. “Every minute they’re out there, they’re playing hard…They went on that little run towards the end of the first half and it gave them a little bit of hope. We just said…there’s not a 17-point shot, you got to chip away, chip away, try to get this thing under 10 going into the fourth quarter.

In the second half, Streetsboro played active defense and forced several turnovers, and chipped away at the lead. An and-1 basket and a driving layup by Roscoe and a lay-in by senior guard Braden Hoge on a feed from senior guard Manny Gibson cut Woodridge’s lead to 42-29 at the 4:15 mark of the third quarter.

Woodridge responded to the Rockets’ 7-0 run by outscoring Streetsboro 12-5 for the remainder of the period to take a 56-36 lead. Woodridge senior guard Branden Evans swished a 3-pointer, Maxa had a couple free throws and a layup, and junior guard Kellen Morr scored on a breakaway layup.

The energy displayed by the Bulldogs in the last half of the third quarter continued as Woodridge opened the fourth period with a 10-3 run to post a 66-39 advantage.

“We played hard,” Marcini said. “Hats off to Woodridge. They’re a really good team. They got shotmakers, they got bigs, they got some athletes. They played a good game.”

Marcini praised the Bulldogs’ defensive efforts to take away Streetsboro’s long-range game.

“They did a good job of, when we did drive, taking away the kickouts,” Marcini said. “We didn’t get a lot of open looks throughout the game. I think they did a good job of taking away our shooters, PJ (Robinson) and (Braden) Hoge, (and) making us finish at the rim.” Roscoe led the Rockets with 21 points, while junior guard Kyler Jackson recorded 12.

“(Roscoe’s) been great for us,” Marcini said. “He’s scored the basketball this year…He’s been great so far over the first four games.”

For the Bulldogs, Maxa led all scorers with 26 points, and Tyree chipped in 14.