BRUNSWICK — Farrah Benner and Co. flipped the table on the Medina girls basketball team.
Brunswick’s Farrah Benner drives during the first quarter. (RON SCHWANE / GAZETTE)
The Bees entered a Greater Cleveland Conference showdown against Brunswick with an uncanny ability to win close games. The Blue Devils didn’t, having played once — last week in a two-point over Berea-Midpark — when the final score was decided by less than six points.
None of that mattered Wednesday, as Benner pumped in a season-high 23 points, rebounded well and played solid defense as the Blue Devils did just enough to stave off a furious rally to win 41-38.
The well-deserved celebration for Brunswick (8-5, 3-3) was filled with screams and smiles.
“It was an awesome win,” Benner said. “It’s always good winning a rivalry game, and everyone was all in it. We were all playing together as a team. It was great.”
Medina (9-4, 3-3), which fell to 7-3 in games decided by five points or less, was in a do-or-die situation down 37-30 after Benner drilled her fourth 3-pointer.
In typical Bees fashion, they staged a gutsy comeback, but this one ended with two missed 3-pointers by All-Gazette pick Jessie Holzman (9 points, 7 rebounds) in the final six seconds.
Holzman began the rally with a bucket, followed by a free throw by her sister Amanda. Brunswick burned clock but also kept committing turnovers out of a spread offense, and Medina’s Emma Bobey (10 points, 10 rebounds) made two free throws to bring the score to 37-35 with 1:38 to go.
Benner, whose three was Brunswick’s only field goal of the fourth quarter, finally answered with two free throws, but Blue Devils missed the front end of two one-and-ones and the Bees’ Delaney Cullen hit a step-back three that made the score 39-38.
The teams then traded turnovers, and Eileen Salisbury made two important free throws at the 10.4-second mark that forced Medina to chuck up a three-ball prayer.
The Bees got off two. Jessie Holzman missed from the left corner, but forced a jump ball on the ensuing rebound battle. The possession arrow favored Medina, but Holzman missed again from close to the same spot.
“I don’t think our bubble was burst by this loss,” Medina coach Karen Kase said.
The rest of the game belonged to Benner, who was the best player on the court. The Lake Erie recruit was especially clutch right before and right after halftime, hitting five straight shots and giving Brunswick a 32-25 lead on her third 3-pointer, one of many shots that immediately followed a Bees score. The Blue Devils career 3-point leader also grabbed seven rebounds and had four steals.
A season-long theme held true, as undersized but very scrappy Brunswick improved to 8-3 when Benner scores 10 or more points.
“A lot of people recognize Farrah as just a shooter,” Blue Devils coach Halle Schmidt said of the two-time All-Gazette pick. “And she’s a great shooter, but she does a lot of other things. She’s our best player — she’s the best player in the program — and she’s really stepped up defensively this year and taking the ball to the basket and becoming a pretty good leader for us.
“We need her, and she needs to be recognized for the things that she does in addition to her shooting ability.”
The win was just what the doctor ordered for Brunswick, which was coming off a 61-51 loss to Amherst on Saturday.
“When we play hard, we can make a lot of really great things happen,” Schmidt said. “That was one game I saw us play a complete game, and everyone was invested the whole entire time, the whole four quarters.
“I can’t ask any more of them than to do what they just did, because I felt like their emotions were in check and they were playing as hard as they possibly could. Win or lose, we always want to go back to the locker room and say that we played hard. We did.”
Notes
- Medina’s Clover Kaple is out for the season after doctors diagnosed a torn ACL. The senior, who will play for Hiram College next season, was averaging 10.7 points when she got hurt Dec. 16 against Mentor.
- Medina also was playing without backup point guard Olivia Hutchman, who bumped her head during a game in Florida. Freshman Katie Neate played almost the entire second half at point guard for the Bees.
- Angela Fink (16 points) made 6-of-6 free throws in the fourth quarter as Brunswick’s junior varsity pulled away to win 42-29. Jenna McCollum had eight points for Medina.
Brunswick 41, Medina 38
MEDINA 7 10 11 10 — 38
BRUNSWICK 11 11 12 7 — 41
Medina — Margaret Swiecicki 3-0-6, Amanda Holzman 2-1-5, Emma Bobey 3-4-10, Delaney Cullen 3-0-7, Jessie Holzman 3-1-9, Anna Marie Smith 0-0-0, Abby Teske 0-0-0, Katie Neate 0-1-1, Emily McLeod 0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-7-38.
Brunswick — Farrah Benner 8-3-23, Olivia Andrew 2-0-6, Paige Billetz 1-0-2, Gabbi Campbell 1-0-3, Eileen Salisbury 2-2-7, Jessica Skrzypek 0-0-0, Danielle Razzante 0-0-0, Maria Payne 0-0-0, Brittany Henke 0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-5-41.
3-point goals — J. Holzman 2, Cullen, Benner 4, Andrew 2, Campbell, Salisbury. Rebounds — Medina 36 (Bobey 10), Brunswick 23 (Billetz 7). Assists — Medina 6 (Swiecicki, Cullen 2), Brunswick 10 (Campbell 4). Records — Medina (9-4, 3-3), Brunswick (8-5, 3-3). Junior varsity — Brunswick 42, Medina 29.