High school basketball: Red-hot Medina boys hand Brecksville first loss

MEDINA — The 85-65 non-league win by the Medina boys basketball team over Brecksville on Wednesday was slamming. More importantly, it was efficient. Corey Tripp (18 points) had four dunks, including two of the alley-oop variety, but it was a lot of everything else that lifted the hometown Bees (5-1) over previously unbeaten Brecksville (5-1). "We were not very good offensively against Cleveland Heights (on Tuesday)," Medina coach Chris Hassinger said of a 57-56 win. "For us to bounce back and be much more efficient was really, really good for us going forward. "I was a little bit nervous because I thought they would run some zone against us, but we were really efficient against the zone. I think we let up in the second half when they went to man. We weren't expecting that, but the kids fought and stayed in the game." Medina did that by taking smart shots and limiting turnovers in a contest it led 49-26 at the break. The squad shot 33-for-62 (.532) and turned the ball over just nine times, including none in the first quarter. "We always preach offensive efficiency," Tripp said. "We don't always look for the home run. We always look for the extra guy. I feel like everybody played unselfishly." It showed in the box score, with 10 players scoring at least two points and Tripp, Tre Hammond (13 points), Jajuan Jackson (12 points, 3 assists), Brandon Geschke (12 points) and Christian Howard (10 points, 9 rebounds) reaching double figures. Medina dished out 23 assists and nine players had at least one. Michael Rodak came off the bench and had a team-high five. "We really took care of the ball," Hammond said. "This game, we were playing to get better, honestly. We were playing against a good team. Games like this are going to matter more when we play even better competition." Medina essentially won the contest in the first half, when it held Brecksville to 12-for-33 shooting (.363). While Brecksville pulled down 17 offensive boards among its 37 total rebounds, just about every shot was contested. "Defense is our main thing," Tripp said. "Even (against Cleveland Heights) we weren't that good offensively, but defensively we were great. That's our bread and butter." That attention to detail was enough to take a one-point game with 4:59 left in the first half and blow it wide open when Medina went on a 25-6 run. That afforded Medina a lackluster third quarter where Brecksville closed it to nine with 1:13 left. While Chase Garito (24 points, 14 rebounds, 10 offensive) had a big game for Brecksville, Luke Ganim (10 points, 8 assists) was the only other player to reach double figures. "There's no doubt we relaxed," Hassinger said. "When you get up on teams and you're tired from the night before. You have every excuse in the world. Kids are kids, and it's our job to push them to push that score back up, and we did. Right there at the end of the third quarter we went on a little (6-0) run at the end. That's our kids knowing we have to kick it in the butt a little bit and get going." Wins on back-to-back nights showed Medina just how resilient it needs to be if it wants to make another late run in the postseason. "The brutality of all these games — you're going to play in a week where you might not expect to add a game and have no time to game plan for it — is a lot like the tournament," Hassinger said. "Playing under mental distress is what we're good at. Our kids are getting ready for the tournament already." Contact Brad Bournival at bournival929@gmail.com. Medina 85, Brecksville 65BRECKSVILLE 12 14 24 15 — 65MEDINA 22 27 16 20 — 85Brecksville — Luke Ganim 3-4-10, Jeremiah Michael 1-0-3, Chase Garito 12-0-24, Matt Rose 3-2-8, Tyler Ganley 5-1-16, Jack Kenney 1-0-2, Jack Pleasant 0-0-0, Trey Green 0-1-1, Kyle Keener 0-1-1, Mason Lewis 0-0-0. TOTALS: 25-9-65.Medina — Drew Hensley 3-0-8, Jajuan Jackson 4-2-12, Tre Hammond 5-0-13, Brandon Geschke 4-1-12, Corey Tripp 8-2-18, Bryce Beech 1-1-4, Christian Howard 5-0-10, Matt Spatny 1-0-2, Michael Rodak 0-0-0, Carter Hipp 1-0-3, Stephen Mosack 0-0-0, Luke Klanac 0-0-0, Ben Butler 1-0-3, Sahib Singh 0-0-0. TOTALS: 33-6-85.3-point goals — Ganley 5, Michael, Geschke 3, Hammond 3, Jackson 2, Hensley 2, Beech, Butler, Hipp. Rebounds — Brecksville 37 (Garito 14), Medina 39 (Howard 9, Spatny 9). Assists — Brecksville 14 (Ganim 8), Medina 23 (Rodak 5). Records — Brecksville (5-1), Medina (5-1). Junior varsity — Medina 63, Brecksville 44 (M: Brennan Schram 14).