MEDINA — The Medina County showdown of the season is set.
Playing one of its best all-around games, the Medina boys basketball team started strong, ended stronger and still played well in-between Friday to crush short-handed and inexperienced Shaker Heights 76-52 in Greater Cleveland Conference play.
Medina’s Jon Teske blocks the shot of Shaker Height’s J’van Beasley in the first quarter.
The Bees (14-5, 9-2), who scored 25 of the game’s first 29 points, maintained their shared position atop the GCC. A ginormous battle at archrival Brunswick (15-4, 9-2) awaits Tuesday.
“I think it was a great day,” said backup post Jimmy Daw, who was the Bees’ leading scorer at halftime with eight points. “We had a long week — we didn’t have a game Tuesday — so we had a lot of time to prepare. We worked on a lot of things for this game along with the game coming up.
“We played really well tonight. We’re shooting the ball well.”
Learning valuable lessons from a buzzer-beating loss to Strongsville last week, Medina was sharp from the opening tip against the Red Raiders (7-11, 4-7), who were without double-digit scorers Jeramie Burge and Amani Redus (undisclosed).
The Bees were extremely balanced, as 10 players scored and six had at least seven points. Medina shot 28-for-56 overall, 10-for-11 at the foul line and 10-for-19 from 3-point range while adding 21 assists and owning a commanding 43-18 rebounding advantage.
Stars Jon Teske (14 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks) and Luke Schaefer (15, 7, 6) put up great numbers, but role players Jackson Sartain (12, 4-of-7 3-pointers), Ben Geschke (7, 2 assists), Colin Szumski (7, game-high 6 assists) and Daw set Medina apart.
“We can’t look down on anyone,” said Szumski, whose assists all came after halftime. “(Shaker Heights) was one of the lower teams in our conference, but our conference is so good anyone can beat us on any given night, as we saw at Strongsville.
“We just had to come out with energy and play really hard.”
Shaker Heights started two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman and never had a chance after scoring four points on 2-of-10 shooting in the first quarter. The Red Raiders then gave up a 9-0 run — all on 3-pointers — that made the score 25-4 only 1:51 into the second.
J’Von Beasley, Dale Bonner and James Williams had 10 points apiece for Shaker Heights, which didn’t attempt a free throw until 2:07 left in the first half and struggled to make buckets period (7-or-28 in the first half) with the 7-1 Teske owning the middle.
“The 2-3 (zone) worked really well on defense,” Daw said.
Medina has taken care of business the last two games, beating GCC bottom feeders Euclid and Shaker Heights by a combined 46 points. The Bees appear to be jelling again after a 5-5 midseason stretch that culminated with the upset loss at Strongsville.
The timing couldn’t be much better, as the nitty-gritty portion of the year has arrived.
“I think we’re very dangerous,” Daw said. “Everyone should look out when we’re on like that.”
Note
| Cameran Thomas (17 points) banked in a floater with 4.4 seconds left to give Shaker Heights’ junior varsity a 32-30 win. Sam McKee had a game-high 18 points for Medina. |
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.
Medina 76, Shaker Heights 52
SHAKER HEIGHTS 4 14 19 15 — 52
MEDINA 16 21 19 20 — 76
Shaker Heights — Jordan Burge 2-0-5, Kevin Bishop 1-0-2, George Evans 3-0-6, J’Von Beasley 3-2-10, Dale Bonner 4-0-10, Cory Ivory 1-0-2, Jaylin Garner 0-0-0, Isiah Wright 2-0-5, James Williams 3-2-10, Tyler Binda 1-0-2, Marlon Seymore 0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-4-52.
Medina — Luke Schaefer 7-1-15, Jimmy Clark 1-0-2, Jon Teske 4-6-14, Jackson Sartain 4-0-12, Ben Geschke 3-0-8, Colin Szumski 3-0-7, Jimmy Daw 3-1-8, Tyler Kaminski 0-0-0, Sam McKee 1-2-4, Jared Keith 0-0-0, Shane Cullen 1-0-3, Matthew McNaughton 1-0-3. TOTALS: 28-10-76.
Shaker Heights — Beasley 2, Bonner 2, Williams 2, Wright, Burge, Sartain 4, Geschke 2, Szumski, Daw, Cullen, McNaughton. Rebounds — Shaker Heights 18 (Evans 4), Medina 43 (Teske 15). Assists — Shaker Heights 10 (Bonner 4), Medina 21 (Szumski, Schaefer 6). Records — Shaker Heights (7-11, 4-7), Medina (14-5, 9-2). Junior varsity — Shaker Heights 32, Medina 30.
