The BHS boys’ basketball team seems to be hitting stride. The Bison are 10-4, 7-2 in the conference, and have won six out of the last seven games by an average margin of 30.6 ppg.
So far this season, Beachwood is averaging 71 ppg with their stellar offensive play. When asked to explain this high level of success, Coach Jason Pecjak gave credit to the players. “[They are] working on their game year round, 24/7, 365.” They don’t just practice during the school season. Pecjak explained, “[Players] work out individually during the off-season to improve their game.”
Senior Captain Jared Moss thinks their high-powered offense is a product of “our ability to play as a team.” Another key point Moss stressed was the team’s great chemistry. “We always know where everyone is going to be on the floor,” he said.
However, there is a large discrepancy between Beachwood’s points per game during wins compared to their points per game during losses. During wins this year, the Bison are averaging 77 ppg while in losses they are only able to muster 55 ppg.
“As a team, we aren’t very tall,” said Pecjak. “Most of our shots come from the perimeter, so if those shots aren’t falling, we struggle to score as many points.” Any team can have a bad shooting night, it just happens sometimes, and for the Bison that bad shooting night came in the season opener against Orange, where they scored only 46 points on 24% shooting from the field including 18% from beyond the arc.
Moss made a similar statement. “We will struggle on nights when we don’t get enough key contributions. Everyone needs to contribute in some way for us to get the win.”
The Bison, it seems, would much rather play a fast-paced up-tempo game. “Our team philosophy is to push the ball up the court to maximize our possessions,” said Pecjak. “When we play at our fast and furious pace, it will lead to some high scoring games.” Beachwood also uses the full-court press to speed up the other team and force them into turnovers. “When we use high-pressure defense it gets us steals and turnovers, which can lead to some easy buckets.”
In games where Beachwood scores under 60 points, the Bison have a 1-3 record, and in games where they score less than 50 points, Beachwood is 0-2. The Bison have scored at least 66 points in all of their other games, including back–to-back games where they scored 102 points against Newbury and Cardinal, winning both contests.
Pecjak identified John Davis and Ellis Cohen as the two most consistent contributors. He said, “We get other big contributions on a game to game basis. Jared Moss [came through with] his big game against Cardinal (31pts, 9/10 from behind the arc), and Jon Tramer lead us in scoring against Cuyahoga Hts. (16pts) The young guys also give us big contributions, even when they aren’t scoring, with their tenacious defense.”
The Bison haven’t been tested many times this year, playing in only four games decided by six points or fewer, going 1-3 in those games. They will have to step up in these close games as they have five games remaining against very good teams, including three against teams they have already lost to. They lost 68-70 against Richmond Hts. 55-67 against Hawken and 49-55 against Cuyahoga Hts. The other two games are against ranked VASJ and ranked Lake Catholic.
