Dude, f’real. Did Tuesday seriously just happen?
Strongsville basketball players celebrate after Jimmy Pesarchik hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to beat Medina on Tuesday. AARON JOSEFCZYK/GAZETTE
One of the wildest nights of Medina County boys basketball in years had a little bit of everything. There were three overtime games that included game-tying buckets in the final 4 seconds of regulation, three games that ultimately ended on buzzer-beaters, three first-place teams losing — yet staying in first — Black River’s Allan Benson scoring his 1,000th point and, let’s not forget, Buckeye upsetting Clearview.
Pfew!
Trying to explain how everything went down was an adrenaline rush that sports writers are addicted to. How do you recap a heart-palpitating game in 750 words while having approximately one hour to write about it?
That’s why they pay us the big bucks, folks (well, not really).
Let’s start with the county’s biggest schools, Medina and Brunswick, who both lost but maintained footing atop the topsy-turvy Greater Cleveland Conference, which also featured Euclid’s Quintin Dove dropping a you’ve-gotta-be-kidding-me 50 points in a four-point loss at Mentor.
The previously thought-to-be-invincible Bees, who are 6-5 since taking an undefeated record to Florida over Christmas break, had no business losing to improved-but-not-great Strongsville, especially after beating the Mustangs by 29 points in December. Alas, Jimmy Pesarchick called bank on a 3-pointer at the horn for a 62-59 upset, the biggest of the evening.
The Blue Devils played their 10th — TENTH — game decided by six points or fewer and/or overtime and had Elyria beat until Antonio Blanton made an excuse-me 24-foot rainbow to force overtime. The Pioneers then held on when Brunswick couldn’t match Blanton’s feat at the OT horn.
The win was Elyria’s ninth game decided by seven points or fewer, putting them in a first-place deadlock with the Blue Devils and Bees. Five GCC games remain.
Along the line of surprise teams — whoever predicted Elyria would be in first on Jan. 28 was a liar, liar pants on fire — Highland saw some young buck named Cole Tessena make nine 3-pointers in the freshman game. Three hours later, its varsity tried all it could to clench defeat from the jaws of victory.
Luckily, Collin Rittman hit the biggest shot of his career.
Locked in a back-and-forth battle with Avon, the Hornets blew a seven-point lead in a 28.3-second span and were on the verge of spoiling an unbelievable effort from their 6-foot-7 resident oak tree, Joe Wiencek, who had 11 of his 22 rebounds in … drum roll … one quarter. Teamwork saved the evening, as Collin Levandowski called the game-winning play and got screens from Wiencek and Isaac Matejin, and a double-teamed Matejin eventually got the rock and realized Rittman was so wide open for a corner 3-pointer he could have blown a kiss to his girlfriend sitting in the opposite bleachers before firing.
A play like that is why Highland is 9-6 despite losing not one, but two 1,000-point scorers to graduation.
Speaking of 1,000-point scorers — and embarrassingly tacky transitions — Mr. Benson joined an elite club while almost leading a big upset.
While Black River lost in overtime to drastically improved Oberlin, Benson, a quiet, tireless, selfless and humble star, made a free throw for his 1,000th point. The timing was perfect, as it allowed the game to be stopped and athletic director Josh Calame, who has done an extremely admirable job since he was forced by people above his pay grade to fire his boys basketball coach and take over two years ago, to present a commemorative ball.
As for the rest of the game, the Pirates got a thrilling tip-in from Zach Hawley with 3.3 seconds left to get to overtime. They then had two chances to tie in the final minute of OT but came up empty.
Wadsworth had a similar feeling of “What if?” after again getting down double digits, clawing into contention and losing. The rebuilding Grizzlies have had a lost season, but whoever can’t see the progress being made is nothing more than a hater.
Against Cuyahoga Falls, rapidly improving point guard Christian Szalay went nutty — on his birthday, no less — and powered the Grizzlies into overtime by making a double-pump left-handed drive with 1.1 seconds left. Then the teams traded long possessions of OT nothingness before a turnover allowed the Black Tigers to take possession.
Finally, Cuyahoga Falls’ Ka’Von Gainer corralled a triple-teamed pass from his brother Kevin and connected on a NBA-range bomb with — get this — 1.1 seconds on the clock to break the Grizzlies’ hearts.
Last but certainly not least, Buckeye would have been a lead story on most nights after beating high-octane Clearview, the first-place team in the Patriot Athletic Conference Stripes Division that was averaging 72 points per game. The 63-55 score helped keep the Bucks’ slim PAC Stars Division championship hopes alive.
Alas, this was not most nights.
Behind a career-high 20 points from emerging junior Joey Bartinelli — all in the second half! — the Bucks came out on top in an ugly game that had 35 first-half turnovers and 80 missed shots overall but also 80 percent foul shooting (figure that one out).
Slowly but surely, Buckeye is overcoming the loss of its best player, hard-nosed All-Gazette guard Nathan Polidori (sprained ankles), and jelling in first-year coach Tom Harrington’s detail-oriented scheme. Resiliency like that is impossible to ignore.
Neither is a night like Tuesday, which may not be replicated for decades.