High school basketball: Cloverleaf falls in sectional finals to a swift Firelands

HENRIETTA TWP. — For 16 minutes, the 17th-seeded Cloverleaf boys basketball team ran with No. 9 Firelands. It all caught up to the Colts in the second half of a 62-49 Division II, Northeast 5 Sectional final loss to the Falcons. "That's probably one of the faster teams we've played against," Cloverleaf coach Jack Banks said. "I shortened our bench because it's tournament time. Our kids got tired. I used a couple timeouts and before I looked up we're down 16." The Colts (8-9) aren't strangers to fast-paced games, but the Falcons (15-6) play a run-and-gun style that can make even the savviest scorekeeper frantic. They can grab a rebound, make two passes and hit a layup before their opponents even get across half court. Because of it they'll face superstar Chris Livingston and second-seeded Buchtel (15-3) in the district semifinals Thursday. The Griffins beat 29th-seeded Tallmadge 93-55. The end came rather quickly after a third-quarter start that Banks and Co. would like to forget. The Colts started the frame 1-for-7 and turned the ball over six times before a 3-pointer by Nate Riley cut their deficit to 46-33 with 1:24 remaining in the quarter. "I don't know what happened," Riley said. "They came out and applied pressure. They were long and athletic. They played good defense. They're one of the most fundamentally sound teams we played all year. They came out and pressured us and, unfortunately, we backed down instead of taking the challenge." While the 6-foot-7 Riley (14 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists) canceled out Mitchell Hodges (12, 10, 7, 5 blocks) and Cloverleaf's front line goes 6-6, 6-7, 6-8, the Falcons relied on the 6-7 Hodges, 6-3 Jackson Talbott and 6-2 Casey Kelley and outrebounded the Colts 31-29. Talbott (17 points, 6 rebounds) and Kelley (14, 6) teamed with Hodges on a team that had four players with at least five boards. "Hodges is tall and athletic, so he's a tough matchup," Riley said. "They're all about the same size, so that helped rebounding. They have big guards, big everything. They're a great finishing team and their size definitely helped because their guards could get inside our guys and battle around." The Falcons shot 52 percent (26-for-50) thanks to open 3-pointers and 2-on-1 fast breaks. "They were really good and that led to their transition," Banks said. The next step for Cloverleaf will be tough with Riley, Jake Trampush (13 points, 5 rebounds) and Logan Tierney graduating as starters. The good news is 6-8 Logan Forbes (8 points, 4 rebounds) still has three years left and there is experience returning off the bench. "We really need to see the development of Logan Forbes because I think it really has the chance to flourish," Banks said. "We might not be so traditional where we use the high-low. We might go one in, four out, but we have to get better shooting in this program. "That's' my job and the assistant coaches' (job). We've already talked about being better shooters because it's very noticeable now, especially this year. They're packing in and just letting us shoot it and we're not draining it." Contact Brad Bournival at bournival929@gmail.com. Firelands 62, Cloverleaf 49 Division II, Northeast 5 Sectional Final CLOVERLEAF 14 14 5 16 — 49 FIRELANDS 22 13 11 16 — 62 Cloverleaf — Jake Trampush 6-0-13, Nate Riley 4-2-14, Logan Forbes 4-0-8, Logan Tierney 1-0-2, Ashton Newton 3-2-9, Philip Hamilton 1-1-3, Colton Sadowski 0-0-0, Blake Benko 0-0-0, Dilan Pavlovicz 0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-5-49 Firelands — Jackson Talbott 7-0-17, Alex Angle 1-0-2, Mitchell Hodges 6-0-12, Casey Kelley 5-4-14, Caden Bomback 4-1-11, Kyle Ransom 2-0-4, Evan Zidar 1-0-2, Austin Copen 0-0-0, Brock Grude 0-0-0, Gary Uhler III 0-0-0, Anthony Januzzi 0-0-0. TOTALS: 26-5-62 3-point goals — Riley 4, Trampush, Newton, Talbot 3, Bomback 2. Rebounds — Cloverleaf 29 (Riley 12), Firelands 31 (Hodges 10). Assists — Cloverleaf 17 (Riley 7), Firelands 19 (Hodges 7). Records — Cloverleaf (8-9), Firelands (15-6).