WESTFIELD TWP. — The two most obvious casual observations of the extremely young 2015-16 Medina County boys basketball season are this: Medina has a super duper tall kid (7-foot Michigan recruit Jon Teske) and Cloverleaf can’t rebound.
Playing nothing like a team that won a meager six games a year ago, Revere owned the glass so convincingly Monday its post players looked like those overdeveloped 8-year-olds who dominate youth games because they’re simply taller than everyone else.
The scoreboard eventually read 83-38 in a non-league decision that only got worse as the night drug on, as the Colts (0-2) were outrebounded 54-23, with 27-10 and 27-13 splits by half.
The good news? The 45-point margin of defeat didn’t crack the top 10 in Cloverleaf history.
“We’ve got to keep working,” Colts coach Marty Ryan said. “We lack experience and we lack size. Like we talked about last game (a 67-44 loss to Rittman on Friday), we have to box out and do things fundamentally sound. We can’t afford to not be fundamentally sound.
“We obviously got killed on the boards today, and I think that’s our biggest detriment.”
The Minutemen (1-0) didn’t exactly roll into the gym with a bunch of giants, as only perimeter-oriented 6-foot-8 sophomore Pete Nance (9 points, 8 rebounds), son of former NBA All-Star Larry Nance, was taller than 6-3.
Regardless, rebounding against a Colts starting lineup that has no one taller than 6-1 was easy, as Revere had six offensive rebounds while grabbing a 19-6 lead after one quarter. The Minutemen then stretched the advantage to 35-17 behind hot-shooting small forward Mike Hill (20 points).
Backup center George Russell led Revere with nine rebounds, while third-string center David Hill posted eight points and three boards in six minutes. Even fourth-year player and 3-point gunner Teddy Hughes (13 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) got in on the fun.
Cloverleaf has been outrebounded 88-47 in two games.
“We didn’t box out aggressively and we weren’t fighting for position,” Ryan said. “(Revere) had height on us, but they really did a good job of getting position on the ball.”
Adding to the Colts’ misery was shooting, as they went 15-for-62 (.242) from the floor, 6-for-24 (.250) from 3-point range and 2-for-8 (.250) from the foul line.
Senior guard Timmy Schuerger had 10 second-half points and finished with 17 points on 6-for-19 shooting along with five rebounds and two assists. Fellow letterwinner Michael Martin added 12 points on 5-for-12 shooting to go with three steals and a team-high three assists.
The nine other players had nine points on 4-for-31 shooting.
“We have to be a team that can hit some outside shots if we’re going to be (in the game),” Ryan said. “They just weren’t falling today like I’d like them to. There are some shots I wish we wouldn’t have taken, but a lot of them were good looks.”
Note
Former Strongsville girls basketball coach Bill Cash was in attendance supporting his son Matt, the lead varsity assistant for longtime Revere coach Dean Rahas.
Joe Maloney had 10 points as Cloverleaf’s junior varsity lost 61-41.
Revere 83, Cloverleaf 38
REVERE 19 16 26 22 — 83
CLOVERLEAF 6 11 14 7 — 38
Revere — Mike Hill 8-2-20, Kyle Benson 2-3-8, Pete Nance 4-1-9, Lance Milovancev 2-0-5, Teddy Hughes 4-2-13, George Russell 2-2-6, Samson Albert 2-1-6, Joe Boyer 0-3-3, Kyle Tretter 1-1-3, David Hill 2-4-8, Charlie Fink 0-0-0, Jack Schloss 1-0-2, Mason Owens 0-0-0. TOTALS: 28-19-83.
Cloverleaf — Tyler Kapeluck 2-1-5, Travis Hissom 0-0-0, Jeff Gilbert 1-0-2, Timmy Schuerger 6-1-17, Michael Martin 5-0-12, Ryan Gutschow 1-0-2, Levi Grimm 0-0-0, Austin Greer 0-0-0, Kevin Heishman 0-0-0, Joe Rohde 0-0-0, Garrett Clingan 0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-2-38.
3-point goals — Hughes 3, Hill 2, Benson, Milovancev, Albert, Schuerger 4, Martin 2. Rebounds — Revere 54 (Russell 9), Cloverleaf 23 (Schuerger, Gilbert 5). Assists — Revere 18 (Hughes 5), Cloverleaf 11 (Martin 3). Records — Revere (1-0), Cloverleaf (0-2). Junior varsity — Revere 61, Cloverleaf 41.