Vince Borchers led Russia with 20 points. (Press Pros Features Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
The Raiders rediscovered their defensive identity in practice this week and attacked the basket on offense for an important early-season league victory.
Russia, OH – The theory around Ohio about the Russia boys basketball team is this: seven divisions opened a path for the Raiders to win that elusive state championship.
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The past two years the Raiders ran headlong into three-time champion Richmond Heights in the final four at UD Arena and lost. But now the Raiders are in Division VII. And that superpower with future Division I college players from Northeast Ohio? Division V.
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Russia head coach Spencer Cordonnier would never take a state title for granted. He knows there’s a ton of work to be done before entertaining thoughts about a championship banner hanging above Dave Borchers Memorial Court in the school’s new gymnasium.
But in the preseason and through three games – all of them victories – he made an assumption that the Raiders, with three returning starters and three others with a lot of varsity experience, would play the same lockdown defense they did the past two seasons.
“At Botkins the other night we didn’t pull away until late – we just weren’t very sound,” Cordonnier said. “We were letting the ball get to the paint and not helping like we have in the past. Maybe it was my fault for not stressing it enough.”
Top rebounder…Russia’s Dominic Francis grabs one over Jackson Center’s Lawson Snapp.
So, on Wednesday and Thursday the emphasis at practice was defense, defense, defense.
“Our first hour are just hard-nosed straight defensive drills, shell defense, working on everything possible because we know that it’s going to take defense to win,” senior and four-year starter Braylon Cordonnier said.
The timing was perfect for the Raiders. Because on Friday night, Shelby County Athletic League rival Jackson Center – a team the Raiders will have to beat twice to win the league and maybe again in the regional tournament – came to Russia wanting badly to be the first team to beat the Raiders on their new home court.
But the Tigers didn’t know about Russia’s renewed emphasis on defense. They expected to rebound well. They expected to get open shots and make them.
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Little of that happened.
And Russia, with a dominating defense, a ferocious pursuit of missed shots on both ends, a patient offense that dominated the paint and 20 points from senior point guard Vince Borchers, jumped to an early double-digit lead and defeated the Tigers 48-27.
Cordonnier admitted, even with his renewed emphasis on defense, that allowing only 27 points surprised him. The Raiders (4-0, 3-0) permitted only eight points in the paint, and they covered the 3-point line well.
Russia’s defense didn’t let Lucas Heitkamp, or anyone, do much near the basket.
“They’ve got some kids that can shoot it,” he said, “and the (Reed) Platfoot kid is as good a player as there is in the Shelby County League.”
Braylon Cordonnier, 6-foot-4 and strong, has drawn the assignment the past three years of leaning on the 6-7 Platfoot. He held him to four points and only scored three himself.
“What can I say about my son, the job he did on Platfoot,” Spencer Cordonnier said. “He likes to bang around, and he’s big enough and he’s physical enough. They kind of just cancel each other out.”
The Raiders grabbed 12 offensive rebounds in the first half and outrebounded the Tigers 34-16.
“We made it a point of emphasis all week of trying to limit their offensive rebounds and us not turning the ball over,” Jackson Center coach Aaron Klopfenstein said. “I know it’s easier said than done to keep them off the glass with their length and athleticism. We’ll have to figure out a way to keep them off the glass next time we play.”
Klopfenstein, whose team is 1-1 and 0-1, knows he must fix some things and figure out better ways to attack the basket when the Raiders come for a visit in January.
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“We didn’t get very many post touches tonight, which we’ve been able to do in our preseason and our first game,” he said. “So I’ll look at some film and figure out a way to get our guys touches.”
Offensively, the Raiders look different this year. They’ve still been balanced with Borchers, Cordonnier, Benjamin York and Dominic Francis averaging in double figures through the first three games. But, similar to the defense, the Raiders’ offense was uneven. They were shooting too many 3-point shots and not making enough of them to justify it. So the offensive emphasis the previous two days in practice was to look for more shots close to the rim.
Russia’s Zeb Schulze scores to of his eight points over Jackson Center’s Preston Serr.
“We’re athletic enough and we’re big enough to get whatever we want,” Spencer Cordonnier said. “We were settling the first three games for threes.”
Therefore, on Friday the Raiders didn’t ask for much real estate, especially in a faster-paced first half. They were interested in only the 12 x 15-foot space in front of the basket, otherwise known as the paint. Painting the lane has gone out of style, but the Raiders coveted that space, nonetheless.
They got there via the pass into the post, driving out of good ball movement in dribble-drive sets, once on a baseline out-of-bounds play. And often in the name of finding a size mismatch that favored their starting lineup of 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-2 and 6-2. They outscored the Tigers 22-2 in the paint in the first half and 34-8 for the game.
“We share the ball, and we know we can get a good shot every time down the floor, and that’s the key for us to win big games,” Borchers said.
The Raiders led 12-3 on four baskets in the paint and four free throws. Then they scored six of their next eight points off of offensive rebounds. Those were backbreakers that pushed the Raiders’ lead to 22-8 midway through the second quarter. By halftime the score was 26-13, and the lead was never threatened in the second half.
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“They’re one of the top teams in the county and playing at home for we felt like our new gym, big crowd that was going to push us to an advantage,” Braylon Cordonnier said. “But we got to give credit to them. They’re a really good team, and our main focus was to just lock down on defense.”
Borchers helped defend the backcourt well, but that didn’t slow him down on offense. He scored 12 of his 20 in the first half, including a driving layup for the final points with four seconds remaining.
Russia’s Benjamin York attacks the paint against Jackson Center’s Lucas Heitkamp.
“He’s the point guard you need on your team to be successful,” Braylon Cordonnier said. “We run everything through him. He starts it. Tonight, he ended with it.”
Spencer Cordonnier told Borchers and his son before the season that it was time for them to assert themselves more as scorers. Borchers loves distributing the basketball, but he understands why it’s important for him to score this season.
“I have the best team around me that I could ask for, and I know I don’t have to score to win because if somebody helps and crashes on defense on me, then I pass it up and they’ll score,” he said. “But I’m just being more aggressive and trying to score more, and being more aggressive will lead to my teammates getting better shots, too.”
For Jackson Center, the season is plenty young enough for Klopfenstein not to panic over one loss on the road against one of the best teams in the state.
“The one thing I really like about these guys is their mindset,” he said. “We actually had a really good week of practice.”
And it’s way to early for Russia to make state tournament plans.
“Our mindset’s tomorrow night versus Minister,” Braylon Cordonnier said. “We have goals, but our next goal is to win tomorrow night. We kind of forget what happened the last couple years. We just focus on what we have in front of us.”
And excelling on defense as always.
Jackson Center’s Reed Platfoot blocks the shot of Russia’s Braylon Cordonnier in a battle of big men.
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