Obviously bursting at the seams to finally get on the court following a delay due to the extended football season, the Eagles of coach Mike Fitch overwhelmed visiting North Olmsted Saturday, using two long scoring runs on the way to a 60-25 victory.

“It’s their game one, and with them coming off of a (football) state championship, you knew that they were going to pack the student section and be loud and antsy, especially coach Fitch,” said North Olmsted coach Matt Joseph. “He’s been itching to go. We’ve been texting, and he’s been itching, getting ready to go, and he had his guys ready to go.”

All 14 Avon players who dressed saw court time, and 11 of them scored. The Eagles, who started one senior, three juniors and a sophomore, were led by sophomore Holden Krugman and junior Dean Abdul with 10 points each. Preston Johnson and Trevor Sykora each had eight points, and Gavyn Kittleberger—the lone senior starter—added seven.

“We’ve been looking forward to tonight,

" said Fitch. "

We have a lot of guys who have never been in that situation, and they needed to gain the experience. It was awesome. First off, this school supports everything, every sport, everything. So, it’s awesome to be the highlight. And to see the kids come out and the people come out on a Saturday night when the weather’s bad.”

Avon’s starting lineup averaged nearly 6-foot-4, while North Olmsted had four starters at 5-10 or shorter and one starter at 6-2. Certainly, the height disparity played a major role in the game, as the Eagles dominated the boards. Avon also used a 1-2-2 trapping press that gave the visitors fits.

“It’s kind of one of our goals, our height and our length,” said Fitch. “We can pressure full court, kind of get our hands on passes and stuff, and then, obviously, offensive rebound.”

Avon scored the first six points of the game, and jumped to a 14-3 lead with 2 minutes, 23 seconds to play in the opening quarter. Eventually, the lead got up to 21-7 by the end of the period. Krugman had six points in the quarter and Kittleberger had five. The only thing keeping North Olmsted above water was the play of junior guard Anthony D’Alessandro, who scored all seven of his team’s points.

The game was put to rest as a result of two massive scoring runs by Avon in the second and third quarters. First there was a 15-0 burst that got the lead up to 34-7, and after sophomore Andrew Halfley hit the first of his two 3-pointers to put the score at 34-10, the hosts put together a 19-0 gusher that made it 53-10. Just over a minute into the third period, Avon took a 45-10 lead, which activated the running clock for the remainder of the contest.

“Our line this year is kind of elite effort, and I think we gave an elite effort,” said Fitch. “That’s what we want to do. We want to have an elite effort every time, even when things are down. Be high and positive when you’re down. And we’re not talking about fake positive. We’re real positive. We’re kind of teaching kids how to talk to each other, how to create positivity in our actions, too.”

A similar effort is likely to be needed in Avon’s next game, as the Eagles host Olmsted Falls on Tuesday. The Bulldogs opened Southwestern Conference play last week by defeating Elyria, the defending conference champion and the preseason pick to win it again.

“It was good to get our game legs under us because we have a very good team coming in on Tuesday,

" said Fitch. "

I like the positivity and energy I saw today. We’ll have to keep carrying that forward.”