In ending Lakewood’s 19-game winning streak, St. Edward varsity basketball moves into District Championship game

By Norm Weber

STRONGSVILLE – Ending Lakewood High’s 19-game winning streak Wednesday here inside Strongsville High School, St. Edward varsity basketball moved into Saturday’s title game in the Wolstein Center with a 59-45 District Semifinal win over the Rangers.

Although the Eagles (21-3) were off and on throughout this game, they led almost the entire night. Lakewood took an early 2-0 lead, the Eagles tied it on a pair of free throws by sophomore Tae Tae Blanton and then took the lead for good on a free throw by senior P.J. Flannery.

“First and foremost, we won the game,” said St. Edward Head Coach Eric Flannery. “That’s important. In a tournament, we’ll take any win. We don’t care how we win sometimes. We just want to grind things out. We have to understand that every night is going to be a grind. We are going to get everybody’s best shot. I thought we did a great job of establishing the lead early in the game, which I thought was important.”

After the Eagles held an 18-9 first-quarter lead, sophomore Montorie Foster got hot in the second quarter. He hit two threes back-to-back, one assisted by Blanton, and stole the ball twice and scored baskets, including a dunk that gave the Eagles a 29-11 lead with 4:36 to go in the half.

“We extended it up to 18 or 19 at one point,” Coach Flannery said. “I have to give Lakewood credit. They (the Rangers) did a good job defensively, cutting off lanes and making it tough for us. Their length was going to be an issue and it was.”

The Eagles turned the ball over nine times in the first half, enabling Lakewood to keep it close at the half, 33-18.

“That was bad,” Coach Flannery said. “That was our biggest concern at halftime, taking care of the basketball and playing smart. Both in finishing the first and second quarters we did a terrible job executing. We turned the ball over at the end of the first quarter and at the end of the second quarter. Not only did we not score, but we gave them two points at the free-throw line. Things like that.”

Both teams were able to get into the bonus in the second quarter. The difference was that the Eagles were 0-of-2 in the one-and-one and the Rangers were 4-of-6. The Eagles led by as many as 19, 33-14, when juniors Demetrius Terry scored with an assist from senior Emmett Chambers. That was negated and then some with those four free throws at the end.

“When we play three sophomores and they are handling the ball, we are going to go through some of that, especially in the tournament,” Coach Flannery said. “It’s good for them to experience that, one, and, two, to pull out a win while we are doing it. We have to be pleased with that. Lakewood does a good job of mucking it up. That’s how they play. They make a team get out of its offense. They play physical inside. It was good for us to handle that tonight.”

Lakewood (22-3) did get it down to 13 in the second half, but no closer than that. Still, it was too close for comfort. The Eagles kept fouling in the second half.

“They are methodical offensively,” Coach Flannery said. “We want to speed up the game. We saw our guys taking gambles they typically don’t, trying to get steals and what not. In a tournament, we can’t do that. We have to stick with what we do and what we know. We got out of it.”

The Eagles are looking at another possible date with St. Ignatius Saturday night in the Wolstein Center. The Wildcats play Medina Thursday in Strongsville.

“When it comes to that, all is positive,” Coach Flannery said. “I don’t take any game or win for granted. Today was no different. We did what we had to do to win the game. I thought it was sloppy and ugly at times, but if we win by 15 points and we don’t play very well, it says a lot about the talent we have on this team.”

When the Rangers did get it down to 13, 43-30, with 1:13 to go in the third quarter the Lakewood fans became vociferous, Mike Dowell came off the bench and nailed a three with an assist from Foster to function as the silencer.

“The crowd got into the game, which was great,” Coach Flannery said. “When we win, we look back and love the experiences we go through. Yes, I want to win every game running away and win by 30, but we become a better team when we are in a spot in the second half when we need a big shot or big possessions. That’s where we grow up as a team. As bad as we played, we could learn a lot from that and hopefully get better by Saturday.”

The Eagles did come to play defense. They did not allow the Rangers a field goal until the 3:49 mark of the first quarter.

“We were energized, which is why we got the big lead in the first half,” Coach Flannery said. “This was all defense, our offense coming out of our defense. We fouled too much. That’s what happens when playing aggressively. Give a lot of credit to how they (the Rangers) played tonight.”

Lakewood did try a zone on defense briefly.

“We had a hard time scoring in the half court, most of our points coming off our defensive effort and our pressure,” Coach Flannery said. “Even their guards are long. They pose a different problem. People can talk about our schedule, but not many teams have three guys over 6-5.”

The Eagles were not intimidated by Lakewood’s 19-game winning streak, but they did respect it.

“Every team we play in the tournament is the best team in the state,” the coach said. “That’s what we preach in practice and prepare for in the game. We expect the best. It doesn’t matter if they lost 19 or won 19. None of that matter to us. It is about being focused and ready to go tonight. My only concern is that we lost that focus tonight and Lakewood took advantage of it to continue to hang around.”

Four different Eagles hit threes in the first half – Terry, sophomore Grant Huffman, Foster, and Blanton.

Huffman also hit two key threes in the second half, one with an assist from Foster that made it 38-21 with 6:15 to go in the third and one with an assist from young Flannery that made it 51-35 with five minutes left in the game.

“In the first half we were driving and turning the ball over and taking tough shots,” Huffman said. “At halftime we talked about driving and kicking and getting open shots. My teammates did a great job taking it to the lane and dishing it out. It felt good, but it was mainly my teammates getting me the ball.”

He also gave credit to the nice shot Dowell made.

“That was huge, because they were starting to get momentum,” Huffman said. “All of a sudden they lost all of it when he hit that three.”

The Eagles made 5-of-6 free throws in the first quarter to help them lead by 11 at two intervals.

Foster wound up with 13 points and five assists, Blanton with 12, Huffman with 13, and Terry with 10.

The Eagles (21-3) are 11-0 at home, 5-1 in road games, 5-2 at neutral sites, 7-0 against the West Side, 12-0 against the East Side, 17-0 against Cuyahoga County, 3-0 against Bunts Road/140th, 1-0 against Lake County, 2-0 on Sundays, 1-0 against Summit County, 0-1 against Lucas County, 2-2 when playing on the West Coast, 1-1 against Southern California teams, 2-1 against teams west of the Mississippi, 0-1 against East Coast teams, 2-0 on college floors, and 1-0 against teams from the Bible Belt.