Windham basketball tops Garfield for first time since 2018

GARRETTSVILLE — Friday night was emotional from start to finish.

The early moments were characterized by a packed house, mostly wearing "We Play With Max" shirts in honor of Garfield senior Max May, who has battled brain cancer to play multiple sports, inspiring countless people along the way. Those emotional early moments included the G-Men's first points of the night, a May layup that sent the massive crowd into a frenzy.

The later moments were emotional, too, as Cody Apthorpe, a Windham legend replacing a Windham legend in Marty Hill, secured his first win as a head coach with Friday's 63-43 win.

It was about as much emotion as there is in any high school basketball game, let alone one occurring in early December when the season is really just getting started.

"It's extremely special," Apthorpe said. "We knew coming in with the event for Max, which is a great thing, it's a great lesson for the kids in general, but this traditional game, to have the first win happen here with so many things going on, a packed gym, an extremely good, fun fanbase, Mr. Hill sitting in the crowd, it's really tough to kind of wrap your mind around all the emotions that come into a night like tonight."

The emotions were overwhelming early, as the Bombers missed a number of open shots and the G-Men kept turning the ball over.

Windham found its groove in the second quarter.

After scoring just eight points while going 4-of-13 from the field and 0-of-4 from deep in the opening eight minutes, the Bombers (1-1) surged in the second stanza, hitting 9-of-15 field goals and 3-of-5 3-pointers in what turned out to be a 23-point quarter.

"That's something that we've really been seeking so far between our scrimmages and first game is just trying to prove to these guys how good they are," Apthorpe said. "Coming into tonight, the atmosphere, we absolutely knew the gym was going to be alive, and we, in the first quarter, just had a hard time honing that energy and focusing it to our strengths. So thankfully, we were able to get through a sloppy first and then these guys were really showing what they're capable of from really that point on."

Down 13-8 at the quarter break, Windham got going with back-to-back 3-pointers.

Senior Chase Eye found fellow senior Zack Turk for a swish from the right wing 20 seconds into the second. Then, Eye turned a Garfield turnover into a transition 3, as the point guard calmly strolled to the top of the arc and sent the ball crashing through twine.

"In the first quarter, just adrenaline was going," Eye said. "We were all excited. There was a lot of noise, and then once the first quarter was over, we kind of calmed down, relaxed, Coach got us in a rhythm. We kind of got the rhythm and things just took off from there."

Down 18-16, the Bombers went on an even bigger run.

After tying the game with a pair of free throws, Eye, who led all scorers Friday with 24 points, raced down the court and pulled up just in front of a defender looking to draw a charge and hit a bank shot. Seconds later, it was Eye again, with a deadly slow-down-and-blow-by move on the break, capped by a sublime high kiss off the backboard.

"We like to move the ball," Eye said. "We like to get up and down the floor as fast as we can."

Then, Eye found Turk for 3, for the second time in the quarter, to put Windham ahead 27-18 with 1:55 left in the first half.

The Bombers led the rest of the way as senior Lucas Churchill (10 points, 6 rebounds) and Eye were no less electric coming out of the intermission, exchanging baskets throughout the third quarter.

"This is my last time I'm ever going to play against Garfield," Churchill said. "We've lost the last, what, five, six years, so I wanted to reignite it and get us another win. Let's try to keep it going."

While Windham tries to keep it going Saturday against Rootstown, Garfield will have a quick bounce-back chance against a traditional powerhouse in Bristol.

Jackson Sommer led the G-Men (0-2) Friday with 15 points, including three 3-pointers in the first half. Preston Gedeon and Carter Bates added nine and eight points, respectively.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Windham basketball tops Garfield for first time since 2018