PERRY TOWNSHIP — Perry’s boys basketball team was very good last season, and if its season-opening 88-71 win over Toledo Woodward on Saturday night is any indication it could be better this season.
The Commodores, a Dayton Division IV regional semifinalist a year ago when they finished 22-4 and won the Northwest Central Conference, jumped out to a 45-19 halftime lead and were up by as many as 30 points in the second half against Division II Woodward.
They had four scorers in double figures and hit eight 3-pointers. Orion Monford (25 points) and Jakoby Lane-Harvey (17 points) led the scoring. Kobe Glover had 16 points and six rebounds and Plummie Gardner scored 11.
Perry shot 58 percent on field goals (31 of 53) and forced 21 turnovers.
Perry coach Matt Tabler said he got what he’d hoped for from his team when it matched up against a bigger division school.
“We purposely scheduled a Division II school. We knew their speed was something we saw at the regional level that we really weren’t used to. We needed the speed of this game,” he said.
“I thought for the first game of the season we played very well offensively. The defensive end and defensive rebounding are things we will continue to work on this season.
“We made the extra pass, we attacked the basket. But I think the biggest thing was playing as a team. Sometimes you worry when you have five very good basketball players if there are enough basketballs to go around. But I thought we did a good job of sharing the basketball tonight,” Tabler said.
Perry’s first quarter illustrated the Commodores’ ability to spread the ball around.
Lane-Harvey, last season’s leading scorer, didn’t score in the first five minutes of the game. But Monford had 13 points in the opening quarter, including three 3-pointers, and Gardner got eight points, including a couple of threes, in the first eight minutes.
“Orion has paid his dues. He was a JV player as a sophomore. He was sixth man last year when he probably could have been a starter. Boy, he came out on fire and really got the team going tonight,” Tabler said. “He has worked on his game this summer in AAU, playing with Jakoby, and it really showed tonight.”
Perry’s biggest lead was 54-24 with just under six minutes left in the third quarter. Woodward cut that margin to 66-45 after three quarters before the second-teamers on both teams finished the game in the final quarter.
G’Nonn Garaway scored 25 points and Charles Robinson had 20 points to lead Woodward (1-1), which opened with a 79-65 win over Fremont Ross on Friday night.
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