Following a 60-46 season opening loss at home to Eastwood on December 10th, Jeff Overmyer’s Genoa Comets (4-4, 1-3 SLL) will look for revenge on the road against their friendly rivals on Thursday.

The Comets, despite losing three of their top scorers to graduation, have played well of late. Genoa is coming off of their first SLL win against Gibsonburg on the road last week and will look to finally knock off Eastwood (2-7) and continue their winning ways on Thursday.

“I’m really pleased with the way we defended the other night against Gibsonburg,” said Overmyer, now in his 11th season with the Comets.

Genoa has not had much luck of late against Eastwood, losing both meetings by narrow margins last season (52-48, and 47-44) and the first this season, but they are looking to build on their win against Gibsonburg and take advantage of the struggling Eagles.

Genoa junior post Tyler Darling goes strong to the basket. (Press photo by Harold Hamilton/HEHphotos. lifepics.com)

Eastwood junior guard Lincoln Peters blocks a Central Catholic shot at the Sullivan Center. (Press photo by Scott Grau)

After a 15-7 (11-1 SLL) season a year ago, Todd Henline’s Eagles have dropped five in a row to Central Catholic (88-46), Elmwood (66-44), Gibsonburg (50-47), Toledo Christian (52-50), and Lake (73-65), despite having three players in double-figures against the Flyers last week.

The Eagles’ woes began against City League power Central Catholic on December 23rd and they haven’t won since.  During the streak, the Eagles have been defeated by an average of 16 points per game and their already difficult schedule won’t get any easier as six league foes and non-conference foes Oak Harbor, Springfield, Rossford, and Archbold still remain.

The Eagles are averaging 49 points per game this season, down from 54 last season, and are allowing 60 points per game versus 49 a year ago. They are 1-6 since their previous win against Genoa, yet Overmyer knows his team will have their hands full on Thursday.

“We’re not looking at Eastwood as a 2-7 team,” said Overmyer. “We’re looking at Eastwood as the team that beat us in the season opener.  I know they are a much different basketball team than they were at that point of the season and we are too.”

Genoa will have to rely on 6-4 senior forward Luke Sutter, who scored 10 points in the first go around with the Eagles.  Sutter is quietly putting together a solid season, leading the Comets in scoring (10 ppg.) and rebounding (6.6 rpg.).

“Luke’s presence inside gives defenses problems. Teams have to focus on stopping Luke inside.”

Because Sutter draws so much attention in the paint, he creates openings on the outside for Genoa’s perimeter shooters.

Seniors Eric Schimming, Cole Welsh, and Stephen Clark have been productive from the perimeter this season but Overmyer knows they still have room for improvement.

“Right now, we’re still struggling to shoot the basketball from the perimeter. We work on it continually in practice and we are improving, but I know it’s not to the point where the guys would like it and the point where our coaching staff would like it. Because of our lack of varsity experience, we haven’t been shooting the ball as well as we would like to. If we keep making improvements everyday and get closer to tournament time our perimeter shooting will be where it needs to be.”

Genoa will have to be awake on defense and get off to a fast start. In the season opener with Eastwood, Genoa fell behind 17-7 early and never regained momentum en route to the loss.

The Comets will be forced to keep an eye on Eastwood senior guard Justin Faykosh. Faykosh led all scorers with 16 points in the first meeting and has been productive all season long, leading Eastwood in scoring.

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