Eagles tested against the best Northwest Ohio offers

Considering that two losses came to the state’s No. 4 ranked Division II team, Rossford, and two others to Division III regional qualifiers Archbold and Ottawa-Glandorf, Eastwood’s 15-9 boys basketball season looks impressive.

“Some of our losses have been against quality opponents — Archbold beat us (39-28), Ottawa-Glandorf beat us (76-40), Rossford beat us twice (72-40 and 58-34), so hopefully those losses can benefit you,” Eastwood coach Todd Henline said. 

“By playing tough competition you learn some things. This team has progressively gotten better throughout the year and I like where we are at (at season’s end) but ultimately it’s been one of those years where it doesn’t matter who you are playing, you have to come out and play your ‘A game,’ and if you are not, anybody can beat you.”

The Eagles were 9-4 in the Northern Buckeye Conference but had losses to Elmwood and Otsego down the stretch. The Eagles avenged their loss to the Knights, winning in the tournament, 65-46, to qualify for the D-III district, where they fell to Cardinal Stritch, 75-65.

“We ended up finishing second in the league and finishing second behind Rossford is no slouch,” Henlilne said. “To be honest, our league, from No. 2 to No. 8, on any given night you could get knocked off. That happened a lot this year. Each team took turns knocking each other off.

“Woodmore was a 13-win team that we beat twice, Fostoria was a pretty athletic team that won 11 games that we beat twice. We had a nice win at home against Sandusky (65-50) — they are pretty athletic, too, and we played well that night.”

The Eagles beat a pesky Genoa team that Henline said played “suffocating defense,” 31-29 and 53-50 in overtime.

Jacob Meyer, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, is first team All-NBC and second team Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press after averaging 13 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, 1.6 assists and 1.1 steals. For the All-Press team, he was the top vote-getter among second team selections.

Like his older sister, Bowling Green State University volleyball standout Katelyn Meyer, Jacob can jump out of the gym, as he demonstrated against Stritch’s taller players in the district semifinal at Central Catholic’s Sullivan Center.

Eastwood 6-0 senor shooting guard Isaac Badenhop is second team All-NBC and third team All-Press after averaging 10.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists.

“It is nice because Badenhop and Jake Meyer have been three-year varsity players for us, and when you have that kind of experience coming back that tends to help,” Henline said. “Those two along with (6-4 senior post) Max Buchman are our three captains this year — all three of them have brought great leadership to the program and I appreciate that.  

“Our biggest problem I think is we’ve had several guys move up from JV and not being able to do a whole lot last summer it took us a little while to get on the same page. 

“I had been getting different contributions from different areas, but the last six or seven games we had pretty balanced scoring and if you take one guy away from us, the other guys have been stepping up. It has been a nice thing for us this year.”

The Eagles were led in the backcourt by brothers — 6-1 junior Lake Boos and 5-9 sophomore Case Boos, who are both honorable mention All-Press and HM All-NBC. 

The Eagles were deep, too. Henline could rotate eight or more players in, including 6-2 junior Andrew Arnston, 5-9 junior Jacob Limes and 6-2 junior Emmet Getz, and if you have not noticed, all of those players will be returning next year.

Eastwood opened the tournament by defeating Maumee Valley Country Day, 61-38. That was easier said than done. The Hawks just got 11 games in (3-8), but they had talent in senior J.R. Lumsden, a first team All-Toledo Area Athletic Conference player who got his 1,000th career point just prior to the tournament game.

Henline thought that getting to play Stritch in the district tournament was “good for some of my younger players.” In that game Stritch led nearly the entire game but could not pull away. Every time Eastwood would get within a possession or two, the Cardinals would respond with a run of their own.

More than anything, Henline is pleased with the way his players dealt with adversity. That included one stretch where the Eagles had to play nine games in 18 days, and that does not include at least two other games during that stretch that were scheduled but not played because of coronavirus protocols.

“With everything we have had to deal with we have had a pretty good year,” Henline said. “Our whole program has been on quarantine twice. We have had some adversity, but they have handled it well and ultimately going into the tournament we were healthy, and that was the main thing.

It has been a crazy year. It is almost like getting 24 games was almost an accomplishment. If you had told me that we were getting 24 games this year I would probably have said ‘I don’t know if we are going to be able to get that many in.’ That was a nice thing.”