Townes' 30 Sparks Bison to Easy Victory Over Hawken

Quite an interesting gym they have at Hawken High School.

Partisan crowds usually sit on opposite sides of the floor from each other.  But at Hawken, they sit side by side with their heads moving in sync to the action with cheers volleying back and forth to signal each score as if it was a tennis match.

But during the third quarter, only one side was cheering.

Beachwood senior forward Jeremiah Townes sparked a huge Bison scoring spurt to break open a once tight game as it posted 32 points in the third quarter to secure a commanding Chagrin Valley Conference Metro Division boys’ basketball victory over the Hawks, 81-57, on Friday night.

Townes scored 15 of his game-high 30 points in the third quarter to lead the Bison to an 11-8 overall mark and 9-5 in the CVC. The Hawks fell to 6-12 overall and 4-9 in the CVC.

Townes wasn’t feeling right with his game early in the contest and said Beachwood coach Jason Pecjak helped get his mind back on track.

“In the first half, I wasn’t playing so well. I thought it would be a bad game for me, but coach told me at halftime to keep my head up, keep doing my game. And then the shots fell, and I just went with it,” said Townes, who averages 18 points per game.

Whether he was raining jumpers from beyond the three-point arc or using a little guile inside to put back rebounds or hoist short jumpers, Townes’ full game was on display, especially in the third quarter.

A Townes’ bucket opened the third quarter scoring to put Beachwood up, 40-31.Guard John Davis followed with a mini-run of his own with a foul shot and a 3-pointer. His assist to senior guard Andrew Somogyi, who had 15 points, gave the Bison a 46-31 lead at 5:35.

After a Jared Moss steal led to another Townes’ score, Hawken’s Will Starks, who led them with 14 points, finally scored at 5:02 to end a nearly six-minute drought dating back to the second quarter.

From there, Townes had two of his three 3-pointers and a pair of sparkling layups as the Bison piled on another 20 points to end the quarter for a 70-42 lead. You can count Hawken coach Shawn McGregor among Townes’ admirers.

“He’s a heck of an athlete, one of the best players in the conference without a doubt.  I mean his vertical is on the roof. He’s put a lot of work into his game. He’s improved quite a bit since his sophomore year,” McGregor said.

Early on, though, little signaled there would be any kind of explosion.

After the Bison opened the game leading, 15-8, the Hawks went on an 11-4 run to tie the game, 19-19, with under a minute remaining the first quarter.

Neither team could create much separation for the second quarter’s first five minutes. The Hawks had plenty of chances to take the lead, but didn’t do so until Sami Hawwa sank a pair of free throws at 3:07 for Hawken’s only lead of the game, 31-30.

A Townes’ tip-in allowed the Bison to regain the lead, 32-31, for good and began an unanswered eight-point spurt that gave Beachwood a seven-point halftime lead.

Beachwood travels to Cuyahoga Heights for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff on Tuesday.

Beachwood 21  17  32 11

Hawken        19  12 11 15

Beachwood: Jeremiah Townes 30 points, Andrew Somogyi 15, Isaiah Watts 9, John Davis 8, Ellis Cohen 7, Kelly Rice 5, Ari Meskin 3, Jared Moss 2, Jordan Richardson 2.

Hawken: Will Starks 14 points, David Nelson 11, Matt Burns 10,  Josh Bass 6, Nathan Hunt 5, Sami Hawwa 4, Aaron Hayes 2, John Rayburn 2, Chris Richman 2, Jacob Gries 1.