MEDINA — Fans got their money’s worth Tuesday night.
Medina’s Jackson Sartain drives around Brunswick’s Kevin Simmons during the fourth quarter. (RON SCHWANE / GAZETTE)
The latest chapter of Medina County’s most elite boys basketball rivalry was worthy of sole possession of first place in the Greater Cleveland Conference. Medina and Brunswick kept trading blows — often from the 3-point line after selfless ball movement — and almost everything schematically revolved around 7-foot-1 Bees center Jon Teske.
The Bees ultimately brought the Richard H. Clevidence Gymnasium crowd to its feet with a 61-56 win.
Jackson Sartain made two momentum-grabbing 3-pointers and Teske grabbed a critical offensive rebound, but the gutsy Blue Devils (7-3, 3-1) still had two chances to take the lead in the final 15 seconds.
Circle the Feb. 9 rematch at Brunswick on the calendar because odds of another dandy are high.
“It’s a great feeling. Beating Brunswick is always good,” Teske said. “But you’ve got to give them credit. They made shots, and they’re a very good team. We were just fortunate to come out with a victory.”
Despite seeing 2-3, 1-3-1 and man defenses with face-guarding by 6-5 Aaron Badowski, Teske had 23 points on 9-for-11 shooting — one miss was a one-handed putback dunk — 10 rebounds and two assists. Sartain had three second-half 3-pointers among his 17 points, Luke Schaefer (11 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists) had another steady effort and guards Colin Szumski and Ben Geschke combined for 11 assists.
Brunswick countered by making a season-high 14 3-pointers on 33 attempts — the Blue Devils were 6-for-13 inside the arc — using a five-out offense that drew Teske away from the rim. Zach Cebula hit five threes, Kevin Simmons scored all 11 of his points in the second half and All-Gazette point guard Michael Quiring had 13 points, three assists, four steals and one turnover.
“It was a good game. Two good teams,” Brunswick coach Joe Mackey said. “In the end, I thought that they made a couple more plays.”
Medina (9-2, 4-0) led 56-48 with 5:09 left after back-to-back threes from Sartain — “My adrenaline was going,” he said — and 58-50 with 2:49 to go on a rattled-in putback dunk by Teske. Quiring then gave Brunswick hope with a 3-pointer, setting up an action-packed final minute-plus.
Up 58-53, the Bees committed turnovers sandwiched around a missed Brunswick 3-pointer. Cebula then drilled a three to bring the score to 58-56 with 24.5 seconds left, leading to a timeout.
Medina coach Chris Hassinger went for the dagger via a football-style inbounds pass from Szumski to Geschke, but it fell well short and was picked off by Quiring.
Solid man-to-man defense by the Bees burned almost 10 seconds before Kyle Goessler suddenly found himself wide open, elbow-extended. The freshman’s shot drew back iron, but the 6-1 Simmons outsoared Teske near the foul line for an offensive rebound and Mackey called timeout.
Unfortunately for Brunswick, Badowski grabbed the inbounds and threw a short but errant pass to Quiring. Geschke came up with the ball in the ensuing scrum and got fouled.
The junior made the front end of a one-and-one with 10.3 seconds left and missed the second, but Teske grabbed the offensive rebound amongst a throng of defenders and passed back to Geschke.
Geschke then made both ends of another one-and-one and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.
‘“Hass’ just told me to try to be aggressive, try to get the rebound and get another foul,” Teske said.
The first half was smooth, as the teams made 22-of-41 field goals and 12-of-25 3-pointers, committed just eight turnovers and dished out a whopping 16 assists. The halftime score was 30-30.
The third quarter was much of the same, as the game was tied when Sartain made a 3-pointer in the closing seconds to put Medina ahead 48-45.
That set up a thrilling finish between the heated rivals.
“It’d say it was a battle,” Sartain said. “We had to play defense this whole game. We knew it was going to be a dogfight from the beginning. It wasn’t going to be a blowout at all. We had to fight until the end.”
Notes
- Teske was among 755 players nominated for the McDonald’s All-American Game. Other Ohioans were Frankie Hughes (Garfield Heights), Jarron Cumberland (Wilmington), Nick Ward (Gahanna Lincoln), Sean Flannery (St. Edward), Willie Jackson (Garfield Heights) and Xavier Simpson (Lima).
- Szumski started at shooting guard after playing one quarter in the junior varsity game.
- Brunswick did not attempt a free throw in the second half.
- Keith Simmons buried a double-teamed driving shot with two seconds left to give Brunswick a 44-42 triumph in the JV game. Simmons scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half, while Sam McKee’s 16 points paced Medina.
Medina 61, Brunswick 56
BRUNSWICK 15 15 15 11 — 56
MEDINA 16 14 18 13 — 61
Brunswick — Kevin Simmons 5-0-11, Zach Cebula 5-0-15, Aaron Badowski 2-0-6, Kyle Goessler 2-0-5, Michael Quiring 4-2-13, Austin Mick 1-0-3, Tyler Williams 0-0-0, Zak Zografos 1-0-3. TOTALS: 20-2-56.
Medina — Jackson Sartain 6-1-17, Luke Schaefer 4-0-11, Jon Teske 9-4-23, Colin Szumski 1-2-5, Ben Geshcke 0-3-3, Dylan Fultz 0-0-0, Jimmy Daw 1-0-2. TOTALS: 21-10-61.
3-point goals — Cebula 5, Quiring 3, Badowski 2, Goessler, Simmons, Mick, Zografos, Sartain 4, Schaefer 3, Teske, Szumski. Rebounds — Brunswick 12 (Simmons, Goessler 3), Medina 25 (Teske 10). Records — Brunswick (7-3, 3-1), Medina (9-2, 4-0). Junior varsity — Brunswick 44, Medina 42.