Boys Basketball: Licking Heights uses defense, depth to outlast Northridge
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
By Michael Rich
mrich@cbussports.com
Licking Heights’ Bryce Cahill puts up a shot against Northridge on Jan. 10 Licking Heights. Photo: John Hulkenberg
Bryce Cahill looked disappointed standing in the hallway outside the locker room of the Licking Heights boys basketball team.
The junior guard came through off the bench for the host Hornets in a 50-42 win over Northridge in a Licking County League game on Jan. 10.
Cahill scored 12 points and added three steals, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers, including one in the fourth quarter that gave Heights control.
“I was a little off tonight,” Cahill said. “I still hit my shots to help my team. I took a lot of shots. I missed some and made some … I just wish some more of them would have fallen.”
His other 3 came late in the third quarter to cut Northridge’s lead to one. Ezra Bobo had a steal that Alieu Ceesay turned into a layup to give the Hornets a 39-38 lead with 25 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Heights never trailed again.
“I just thank the coaches for trusting me and giving me the ball whenever they think I can go and get a bucket,” Cahill said. “That’s what I did and it worked out well.”
Heights improved to 8-3 overall and 5-0 in LCL play and Northridge fell to 7-2 overall and 3-2 in the league. The Hornets were ranked third in the first Division II MaxPreps RPI poll, which determines postseason seeding for the Central District. The Vikings came in second in Division III.
Licking Heights’ Alieu Ceesay looks to pass against Northridge on Jan. 10 at Licking Heights. Photo: John Hulkenberg
Heights just had too much depth. Ceesay also had 12 points to match Cahill for the team high and Boubacar Conde added 10 points.
Nate Lovinsky also had a big game off the bench with seven points, four blocks and four rebounds in the post for Heights.
Freshman T.J. Ward played only a few minutes, but had a steal. It was just another body to throw at Northridge’s Carter Mallernee.
Mallernee did his best to keep the Vikings afloat, scoring 33 points and adding seven rebounds.
“(Mallernee) is tough, man. The kid is tough,” Heights coach Shaun Fountain said. “When you start to see that he’s the only one and nobody else is making plays, you just gotta throw all your chips in on him and try to wear him down. I threw (Ward) at him for a few minutes just to wear him down and try to make him tired. We knew he couldn’t come out of the game for them.”
Mallernee had 13 of the team’s 15 points in the second half as the Hornets found different ways to defend him.
“(Mallernee) was the main guy scoring, so I thought we did a good job of coming together as a team,” said Conde, a senior guard, who also had seven rebounds. “It’s just all about winning. We were down and could have easily given up, but these are my brothers and we trust one another. Bryce came off the bench when we needed a breather and kept the same intensity.”
Northridge’s Carter Mallernee (top) draws a foul on Licking Heights’ Gama Lovinsky on Jan. 10 at Licking Heights. Photo: John Hulkenberg
He hit seven 3s with three coming in the first quarter where he scored 15 points.
“(Carter) really got hot against Heath last week and he’s just feeling it,” said Northridge coach Bill Mallernee, who is also Carter’s father. “But the season is a grind for him – he’s getting beat up every game. He’s got his legs under him now and we’ve got a good rhythm with him now.”
Heights had 15 steals and forced 20 turnovers to counterbalance Carter Mallernee’s hot hand.
Kaleb Russ had three steals and Ezra Bobo added three steals to go with three assists.
“Our strategy has really been to try to wear guys down,” Fountain said. “We’ve been playing this 2-3 pressure zone and we had to get out of it. (We switched to) pressure man-to-man and our guys can play man-to-man.
“Against Harvest Prep (a 59-57 win on Jan. 2), they shot 30 3s,” Fountain said. “In high school, if you shoot 30 3s, most kids aren’t going to hit a lot of those. But (Carter Mallernee) was knocking them down so we had to go to Plan B tonight.”
Alex Quinlan had five points and five rebounds, Ethan Payne had four points, eight rebounds and five assists, Dylan Chambers had five rebounds for the Vikings.
“(We had) too many turnovers at bad times,” coach Mallernee said. “Movement without the basketball is a big thing we talked about. In the second half, we needed to get some movement without the ball because we had guys just standing there watching Carter do his thing. We’ve gotta move so somebody else can score too.”
Licking Heights’ Ezra Bobo (right) and Northridge’s Drew Bingham battle Jan. 10 at Licking Heights. Photo: John Hulkenberg