Boys basketball: Butcher carves up Cuyahoga Falls defense in Highland win

GRANGER TWP. — With a pesky Cuyahoga Falls squad hanging around, senior Joshua Butcher carved up the Black Tigers' defense to lead the Highland boys basketball team to a 63-48 Suburban League American Conference victory Tuesday night. Butcher scored 19 of his career-high 28 points in the second half, including 11 of the Hornets' final 15. He added a team-high five rebounds plus two assists, one block and one steal. "You could say he put us on his back for a quick minute there," forward Nick Dobkowski said. "Props to him. He's a great player." Dobkowski (10 points) was the only other Highland player to score over the final 9:23. After Cuyahoga Falls cut Highland's advantage to 32-29 on a bucket by Hayden Johnson (14 points, 5 rebounds) one minute into the second half, Butcher scored six straight points for his team. The last sparked a 7-0 run by the Hornets that opened a 43-33 lead when Colin Goldie split a pair of free throws. Butcher passed off much of the credit for his second-half exploits to the opportunities his teammates created for him. "I kind of just took what came my way," he said. "With the game flow, they were giving me a lot of driving lanes and I just took advantage of it the best I could. Obviously, shots were going in today. That's a good feeling." The win against Cuyahoga Falls (1-8, 0-5) helped Highland (6-2, 5-0) set up an important stretch of consecutive SL American games against Aurora, Copley and Tallmadge. Those three teams all entered Tuesday 3-1 in conference play. "First game coming back from (winter) break is always hard, because you don't really want to be in school," Butcher said. "We've got to lock in, because this is an important stretch if we want to win the league. That's our goal, so it's important to take it seriously every day in practice and execute like we did today." The win was easily Highland's widest margin of victory of the season and the first game, win or loss, decided by more than eight points. Paramount was the Hornets' ability to shake off a recent run of slow starts. A 9-0 run early in the first quarter gave Highland an 11-5 lead, and another 9-0 run over the final minute of the quarter and first minute of the second ballooned the lead to 22-12. "I knew we had to come out with a hot start because the last few games have been a pretty flat start," Dobkowski said. "Coach (Tanner) Houska told us to play like we're down 20-0 (to start), and we really took that to heart. We took care of business in the first quarter and it was just a snowball effect." Carson Cope spearheaded the fast start with the Hornets' first seven points and scored nine of his 11 in the first half. Highland also got six points, three rebounds and four assists from point guard Jake Weber. Behind Johnson, who came in averaging 15.1 points, Martin Smith had nine points and Deayre Dortch added eight for Cuyahoga Falls. The Black Tigers went on a 12-3 run over the final four minutes of the second quarter and the first minute of the third to trim the score to 32-29 on a basket by Johnson before Butcher caught fire. Highland also found a groove defensively, holding Cuyahoga Falls to 15 points over the final 12:36, including eight in the fourth quarter. "We definitely had some lapses that I wasn't happy about in terms of me missing being on the help line, but down the wire we did what we needed to do," Butcher said. "We were able to keep them from closing the gap." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Highland 63, Cuyahoga Falls 48 CUYAHOGA FALLS 12 13 15 8 — 48 HIGHLAND 17 15 18 13 — 63 Cuyahoga Falls — Hayden Johnson 7-0-14, Joey Stiffler 1-0-2, Martin Smith 4-0-9, Braylon Davis 1-0-2, Cody Leon 1-1-3, Waseem Mustafa 0-0-0, Jordan Reese 0-0-0, Ethan Johnson 0-0-0, Deayre Dortch 2-2-8, Jordan Kramer 2-0-6, Dominic Russo 1-2-4, Cayden Tompkins 0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-5-48. Highland — Joshua Butcher 9-8-28, Nick Dobkowski 4-0-10, Jameson Gordon 0-0-0, Carson Cope 5-0-11, Jake Weber 2-2-6, Colin Goldie 1-1-3, Ashton Gleba 1-0-3, Conner Dean 1-0-2, Brayden Maloney 0-0-0, Colin Mendenhall 0-0-0, Cannon Foutz 0-0-0, Damian Cirino 0-0-0, Jackson Robertson 0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-11-63. 3-point goals — Kramer 2, Dortch 2, Smith, Butcher 2, Dobkowski 2, Cope, Gleba. Rebounds — Cuyahoga Falls 22 (H. Johnson, Davis 5), Highland 19 (Butcher 5). Assists — Highland 11 (Weber 4), Cuyahoga Falls 7 (Leon 3). Records — Cuyahoga Falls (1-8, 0-5), Highland (6-2, 5-0). Junior varsity — Highland 50, Cuyahoga Falls 45 (OT) (H: Colin Mendenhall 12).