CLEVELAND HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL – Back where they began their 2017-18 campaign with a dominant victory over John Hay, the Wildcats were back in the “Tiger Pit,” this time to take on the Tigers themselves. Already a highlighted date on the Wildcats schedule, Thursday nights matchup vs. the highly ranked Cleveland Heights Tigers became even more anticipated as it became a bounce back game following the Wildcat’s first loss of the season on Tuesday at Sullivan Gym.
Coming off a disappointing loss to Cornerstone Christian, the Wildcats were hungry for some revenge to get their young season back on course. Cleveland Heights, ranked highly in the Cleveland.com high school basketball rankings, started off their season 3-0 with wins over Villa Angela Saint Joseph and GTA Prep from Canada. Heights has four returning starters on their roster this season including 6’5″ forward Tyreke Smith who was expected to be trouble below the basket all night long for Dom Dinunzio and Aymin Bahhur.
After their loss against Cornerstone, the Wildcats were a clear underdog Thursday night. Figuring out the rotation with the return of Jon Barnes and Josh Ozanne was a task for Coach Becker to figure out following Tuesday’s loss, and he seemed to find it just in time. Bahhur and Jon Barnes combined for the first 8 points of the game. Barnes continued his hot play scoring 16 of the first 26 Wildcat points. He will be a key player on the floor all season long. Not only was Barnes scoring well all night long, but he draws defenders to him leaving teammates with open shots. Barnes ended the game with a team high 21 points.
The Wildcats had what seemed to be an errorless first half, giving them a one point advantage at halftime leading 36-35. Dom Dinunzio who had 9 points in the first half had an exceptional evening going up against Heights big man Tyreke Smith. Tyreke was held to 8 points on 3 of 10 shooting. The communication and direction on defense that Dinunzio displayed Thursday night was a key to controlling what could have been an explosive offensive Tigers team. Dom finished his impressive evening with 15 points.
Neeko Melendez showedpromising signs after a rough night shooting the ball vs. Cornerstone. Neeko scored 15 of his 19 points from behind the 3pt arc. Melendez also scored all 15 of his points from behind the 3pt arc in season opener at Cleveland Heights.
Yahel Hill, one of Cleveland Height’s returning seniors, kept the Tigers in the game with his 30 point performace. Hill was 11-18 from the field and knocked down 6 three pointers.
The Wildcats pulled away to 71-64 lead with just over two minutes to play. With just under 2 minutes left the Wildcats went into the 1-1 bonus and Tevin Jackson knocked down two clutch free throws to put his team up by 10.
The Cats finished off the Heights Tigers with a 10 point win in the “Tigers pit,” proving they can play with top teams in the city. Melendez had just that to say following their huge win, “We are a resilient team and will not back down from anyone.”
The Wildcats will continue their challenging schedule tomorrow as they head to Solon High School to take on the #3 ranked team in the city according to Clevealnd.com. Solon has not had any challenges in their first three games blowing out Beachwood, Twinsburg, and Elyria. They will most definitely get their first challenge of the season Saturday night against the Wildcats who will use the momentum they just earned on Thursday. Tip-off from Solon is set for 7:30pm following the JV matchup at 6pm
