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What might be star freshman Darryn Peterson's lone year at CVCA ends in loss to Glenville
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- What might be star freshman Darryn Peterson's lone year at CVCA ends in loss to Glenville
CANTON— "Hey, you're from Cleveland."
Superman gets that all the time.
At least, the Superman of DC Comics fame was dreamed up by Cleveland Glenville High School pals Jerry Segal and Joe Shuster.
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Can Superman play basketball? Can he play defense? If yes, and if the Man of Steel had shed his red "S" for a Glenville Tarblooders uniform Saturday, he would have guarded Darryn Peterson .
Instead, Glenville flew at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy 's rare freshman with seniors in a 75-61 win in a Division II boys basketball district championship game in Memorial Field House.
"We knew 22 [Peterson] was going to score a lot of points," said Glenville senior Savontae Quarles, who outscored the freshman 28-26. "But we've been working hard for this since I was a freshman."
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Glenville reached district title games when Quarles was a freshman, sophomore and junior but finally won one for 23rd-year coach Michael Holt.
"I told our guys Peterson wouldn't seem like a freshman," Holt said. "He plays with poise, confidence and swag. He's just smooth."
CVCA matched Glenville's challenging height, but in one case not its girth (6-foot-5, 310-pound Tavarian Sanders, who will be a football tackle in college, was quite effective) and not in speed and relentless rebounding.
"They beat us up on the glass," CVCA head coach Matt Futch said.
Superman first hit the scene in 1938 and is still around 85 years later. Peterson might be one and done at CVCA.
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Everyone in the Field House who watched Peterson play eighth-grade ball at Canton Hartford last season seemed to have heard where he might transfer next season.
Futch and Peterson weren't hiding from any answers. After his postgame speech, Futch made himself and Peterson readily available to a reporter.
Futch complimented his entire roster, which included seniors Seth Bagwell (16 points), Brennan Darr and Cody Brantley, along with five freshman other than Peterson, all of whom played.
Futch was an University of Akron teammate of Darryl Peterson, Darryn's dad. The Zips went 23-10 in 2005-06, the final season for both.
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Darryl's best two Zips seasons were as a freshman and sophomore. He lost most of his third year to injury and then made it through two more seasons. As a fifth-year Zip in 2005-06, he played 31 games, averaging 13.6 minutes, 7.1 points and 2.6 rebounds. As a CVCA freshman, Darryn averaged more than 20 points and almost 10 rebounds.
Darryn is a major national recruit. Bob Huggins' West Virginia Mountaineers were among the first to offer Darryn a scholarship. Others have followed, including Ohio State last summer.
"Man, he's such a great talent," Futch said. "After he completes his years in high school and goes off to a high major school, he's going to be playing and making money at this game.
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"The one thing we've kind of instilled in Darryn here at CVCA was to walk in a manner of Christ-like character. That's what we talk about. That foundation will help him."
Darryn Peterson said he will be part of long family talks about where he will spend the 2022-23 school year.
"It was a great experience playing for Coach Futch and playing with all the guys," he said. "The best part about it was getting close to God this year. I wasn't ready for it to be over, for sure."
It ended partly because Lashawn Beard, a 6-4 Glenville senior, defended Peterson well in the second half.
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"He likes to dribble and pull up for shots and get to the hole," Beard said. "I pressured him and tried to force him where I wanted to go."
At times CVCA's offense went through Peterson, at times not. Glenville contested almost every shot, no matter who took it.
Peterson's playing style is reserved rather than flamboyant, along the lines of Cavs rookie Evan Mobley . He didn't whine about getting bumped around. One time, a Tarblooder bodied him up outside the circle, stepped even closer than seemed possible, and buried his forehead under the freshman's right shoulder.
Peterson's skill showed out in assorted ways. One time he took off after making a steal, looked backward for a split second to make sure no one would flick his crossover from behind, then accelerated to the rim like silk shot out of a cannon.
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Glenville had too much, though. The Tarblooders led 9-0 out of the gate, found themselves in a close game in a loud environment, and attacked from every direction down the stretch.
"Our guys will talk about this day 30 years from now," said their coach, Holt.
Perhaps they will remember it as the day they faced Darryn Peterson.
Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Savontae Quarles leads Glenville past Darryn Peterson, CVCA
