Springfield, Ohio — The Catholic Central Irish hosted Kenton Ridge for an out-of-conference battle to kickoff the 2020 high school boys basketball season. The Irish knew they would have a good group of guys returning as they lost almost no one from last year’s young squad led by primarily freshman and sophomores.

Kenton Ridge came into this game looking for someone to step-up. The Cougars lost 6’7″ senior Tyler Eberhart who averaged 20 points a game and is now playing at University of Charleston.

Catholic Central star sophomore Tyler Galluch had this to say when talking about his approach coming into Wednesday night’s battle, “we were all aware of the fact that it was a big rivalry and we wanted to go in and blow them out.”

Catholic Central showed their defensive intensity early as Tyler Galluch blocked a Kenton Ridge player on the first play of the game. Then Jack Bramel took a charge. The ammount of jump balls the Irish forced was impressive as well. With just parents in attendance, it was on Catholic Central to create their own energy as they did just that.

Tyler Galluch got it done on the offensive side of the ball as well. He had 7 points in the first quarter as Galluch and Cole Ray each hit a big three to put Catholic Central up 18-10.

“Yeah, I feel like we brought the energy even though their weren’t many fans which helped us a lot throughout the game,” said Galluch as the Irish fueled themselves with their strong defensive performances.

Catholic Central continued playing solid defensive as the Cougars were forced to call a timeout with six minutes remaining in the half as the Irish went on a run and were suddenly up by 13.

The Irish’s guard play came to show at the end of the first half as both Ashton Young and Tre King scored effectively in transition. Tyler Galluch finished off the half with a big and-one to boost their lead to 69-41 at the half.

Tyler Galluch started off the second half hot and then Ian Galluch nailed a corner three to extend the lead and forced Kenton Ridge to burn a timeout. Tyler Galluch and Tre King continued to both score easily and then the Irish’s ball movement led to an easy basket for Cole Ray.

Kenton Ridge was forced to burn another timeout as King hit a corner three and then Ashton Young and Jaeden Threats each got transition layups after forcing a turnover. This huge run by Catholic Central gave them a commanding 58-34 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The Irish gave some bench players minutes in the final quarter as the starters pulled away at the end of the third. The Irish would eventually roll to a 69-41 victory to improve to 1-0 on the season.

Tyler Galluch finished with 20 points and 5 rebounds on the night. Tre King had 12 points. Ashton Young and Cole Ray each had 10 points. For Kenton Ridge, Michael Severt led the way with 11 points.

Catholic Central game on Saturday against Troy Christian was postponed but Galluch is ready for the next matchup the Irish will have, “once we do play again we want a repeat of what happened tonight.”