CUYAHOGA FALLS– The best season in school history for Garfield came to a close on Wednesday, as the G-Men couldn’t hang on, losing 53-41 to Shaker Heights Laurel in a Division III regional semifinal.

While Laurel came out hot, the G-Men didn’t back down and responded to every Gator run with a run of their own.

“(Laurel) came out right away and threw a couple (punches) and we didn’t fold,” Garfield coach Aaron Gilbert said. “We bounced right back (and made it a two-point game at halftime.) We were able to counter punch them. Laura (McCoy) hit some shots, and Mandy (Cardinal) hit some shots, Maggie (Fogel) bombing that three.

“Some things happened and we were able to take counter punches and then there was that little spurt of about 30 seconds (at the end of the third quarter) that went from a four-point game to an eight-point game and that was a huge momentum swing. Then in the fourth quarter, we just were struggling to play catch up from that point on.”

That swing 30-second swing saw two Garfield possessions end in Laurel steals and turned into buckets off the fast break. The 38-29 lead gave the Gators all the momentum they needed to close the game out.

By the end, they were just worn down. They had no problem getting stops early, but when Garfield couldn’t match shot for shot, the game got away from them.

“That was the big speech, we can get some stops, but we’ve got to be able to score,” Gilbert said. “We can trade stop for stop, but we can’t trade their scores for our nothings. We’ve got to be able to do something if we get a stop, we either need to score or we had to try to keep that momentum somehow.

“It’s just so hard because they can create in so many different ways. A couple of times we just got lost in rotations, but we battled it. I think having a couple people that played on this stage last year, at least the gym wasn’t too big and the lights were too bright.”

Senior Laura McCoy, who transferred into the Garfield school district before this year, made her debut on the regional stage. The bright lights didn’t scare her off though, as she had a team-high 17 points.

Coming in from outside Garfield, Gilbert wanted to remind his kids that their program is truly something special and something to be proud of. While making it to regionals has become almost routine for them, making it each of the last three years, it’s a true accomplishment, and something that should be appreciated more in the moment.

“She just has something about her. I don’t know what it is, but she just wanted things so bad this year,” Gilbert said. “I think with her being new and never been on this stage, I don’t think all our kids being around me, and around the program for as long as they have, understand what we have. It’s hard when you’re inside to know what it’s like, and for her coming from the outside to see what we have and to be a part of that.

“She reminded them, at dinner last night, she mentioned how they never got this (far) before. It’s just those things that I just hope the girls — I told them when we got here — to take a moment and look around, because you’ve got to soak it for a little bit.”

Garfield ends its season at 23-3, which is a program high. They return Cardinal, who scored 10 points on Wednesday, and she will be a core piece for the program moving forward.

The G-Men graduate McCoy, Fogel, Madeline Shirkey and Nora Trent.

byauger@tribtoday.com