No. 6 Central Catholic basketball escapes press from No. 9 Warrensville Heights, 70-64 (photos, video)

  • 12/01 - 7:30 PM Boys BasketballFinal
    Warrensville Heights 64
    Cleveland Central Catholic 70
Complete Box Score »

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The one thing Central Catholic still needed to work on was handling a defense's full-court pressure.

Warrensville Heights, No. 9 in the cleveland.com boys basketball Top 25, gave the sixth-ranked Ironmen more work in that area Tuesday night. Central Catholic coach Jordan Duke said they need more, even after a 70-64 nonconference win against the Tigers.

“That’s the first thing we’ll probably do (Wednesday),” Duke said. “We’ve got some young guys at that leading position, and they’ve got to get better. They will.”

Those young guys were sophomores Delshawn and Dyshawn Jackson and junior Dion Ivory. The guards have bigger roles for the Ironmen (1-0), who lost in last season’s Division II state title game. The biggest returning piece from that team is 6-foot-8 senior Tervell Beck, who scored 20 points with Kent State assistant coach DeAndre Haynes watching from the stands.

Haynes came to catch a glimpse of the versatile Beck and check on commit Yavari Hall of Warrensville Heights. Hall scored 20 points before fouling out in the final 90 seconds, just as the Tigers (1-1) ran out of steam.

They rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit with a ferocious full-court press in the third quarter, which turned into an eight-point advantage.

“We haven’t really been working on our press break,” Delshawn Jackson said. “When they pressed us, we got a little jittery.”

In his first start, Jackson scored 14 points. He had seven in the fourth quarter to go with three steals. It helped the Ironmen rebound from a third quarter that left them temporarily flummoxed. Warrensville Heights outscored them 28-8 in the third, forcing 10 turnovers. Central Catholic answered with a 26-point burst in the final eight minutes. The Ironmen climbed back into a 56-all score when Jackson lobbed a pass from the perimeter to Beck, who nearly nipped his head on the backboard on a one-handed slam.

Central Catholic never trailed from that point in the final four minutes, despite a push from Warrensville Heights senior guard Brandon Peters, who played at Central Catholic as a sophomore.

“I had to go hard out there,” Delshawn Jackson said. “For me being a starting sophomore point guard, some people might be bigger and stronger than me.”

Peters is one and scored 21 points between step-back jumpers and drives to the basket.

In addition to Peters’ return to Central Catholic, Tuesday’s game marked Duke’s return as coach. He served the post on an interim basis for the 2014 postseason and was hired this summer to replace Jeremy Holmes, who guided the state final run.

“We’ve got our eyes on some big things this year,” Duke said. “I told them it’s the first step to winning a conference championship, district and so on. We’re not going to get too high or crazy and just come back and work even harder.”

Breaking a foe's full-court pressure is task No. 1.

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