High school basketball: Corey Tripp sets mark as Medina boys' leading scorer

MEDINA — Breaking the Medina boys basketball career scoring record was just a matter of time for Corey Tripp, and the talented point guard scored 28 points Saturday in a 92-53 Division I, Northeast 4 Sectional final blowout of Westlake to place his name atop the chart. Tripp moved past Kyle Szumski (1,229 points; 2016-20) and tied Dontaie Anthony (1,230; 2002-05) with a second quarter basket, then took over No. 1 when he hit the first of two free throws with 6:40 to go before halftime. He now has 1,241 points, placing him 10th in Medina County history. Tripp also had team highs in rebounds (10) and assists (4) to further showcase his all-around talents. "It's the best feeling knowing how much work I put in," Tripp said. "Watching them growing up and hearing about Tony (Stockman) and the legacy he brought here, I'm just glad that I could follow it up and to beat Dontaie's record and to be in the conversation with greats like that." The senior knew he was close to surpassing Anthony but wasn't aware the free throw was the record breaker. Medina coach Chris Hassinger called timeout and Tripp was honored at center court. "Since I've been here, he is one of the best," Hassinger said. "There is no doubt about it. Tony (Stockman) was really special. ... People always look at Corey's scoring, but he defends really well, too. We've not had many players that are that complete of a player. What I keep telling everybody is that as great as Corey is, the fun thing is there is no jealousy with our team. "Everybody wants to look at scoring and they are all enamored with that, but he's got good teammates that get him the ball and sacrifice their games. There is no bickering or arguing to pass me the ball. There is none of that. That is what makes not only his scoring special but our team special." Fellow senior Christian Howard (11 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists) echoed the sentiments. "That's crazy," he said. "We knew he could break it this year. He's an unbelievable player. The skill and the talent he has, there was no way he wasn't going to break it. We all knew, and we were all behind him." Third-seeded Medina (15-6), which played a rugged regular season to prepare for the postseason, was certainly special against 22nd-seeded Westlake. The Bees were solid on defense and efficient on offense, taking control of the game from the opening tip to advance to host Copley (13-9), a 56-46 winner over eighth-seeded Wooster. Medina led 27-12 after the first quarter as Tripp had 13 points, and his teammates did an incredible job defending the 3-pointer, the biggest weapon of Westlake (13-11). The Bees held the Demons to 4-for-30 shooting from beyond the arc with hands-up defense and tight man coverage. "We knew we wanted to push the tempo, and we knew we wanted to defend," Hassinger said. "Our game plan tonight was to not give up open threes. We knew how good of shooters they were from the perimeter. Our whole game plan was to give up twos for threes. We did not want to give up 3-point shots." On the offensive side, the Bees were efficient with balanced scoring and great ball movement. Following Tripp and Howard were Bryce Beech (11 points), Brandon Geschke (9) and Carter Hipp (9). "We know that unless you're shooting a layup, passing the ball three times your points per possession go up," Hassinger said. "That's what we've been harping on the boys about — move the ball unless you have a layup so our points per possession go up and your shooting percentage goes up. The easier the shot is, the more the ball moves at any level, the higher percentage you're going to score. That's what we did tonight." Medina shot a scintillating 69 percent (40-for-58), notched a 17-4 assist-to-turnover ratio, got 15 players on the floor and had 11 score. Eight players had an assist and 10 grabbed a rebound. The Bees led 77-42 late in the third quarter to obtain a running clock. "We knew we had to make a statement that Medina basketball was here, and we're ready for everybody in the tournament," Howard said. "When we came out, we came out very energetic. We were in the locker room, we had a great warmup and we just came out and we executed like we had all week in practice." Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com. Medina 92, Westlake 53 Division I Northeast 4 Sectional Final WESTLAKE&emsp;&emsp;12 22 10 9 — 53 MEDINA 27 24 26 15 — 92 Westlake — Greyson Elyaderani 2-0-5, Austin Norris 3-0-6, Justin Garcia 6-3-16, Cal Reghi 2-0-5, Will Ostrowski 2-0-4, Julian Coleman 2-0-4, Deontae Redding 1-2-5, Blake Wolfe 0-2-2, Tim Rence 2-0-4, Michael Stenger 0-0-0, Jack Klessel 0-0-0, Basheer Alramahi 0-0-0, Dylan Bednar 1-0-2. TOTALS: 21-7-53. Medina — Jajuan Jackson 1-0-2, Bryce Beech 5-1-11, Christian Howard 5-1-11, Brandon Geschke 4-0-9, Cory Tripp 12-2-28, Carter Hipp 4-0-9, Matt Spatny 2-0-4, Michael Rodak 1-0-2, Drew Hensley 2-0-6, Tre Hammond 2-0-4, Stephen Mosack 0-0-0, Luke Klanac 0-0-0, Brennan Schramm 0-0-0, Ben Butler 2-0-6, Sahib Singh 0-0-0. TOTALS: 40-4-92. 3-point goals — Elyaderani, Garcia, Redding, Reghi, Butler 2, Hensley 2, Tripp 2, Geschke, Hipp. Rebounds — Westlake 22 (Elyaderani 6), Medina 31 (Tripp 10). Assists — Westlake 6 (Garcia, Ostrowski 2), Medina 17 (Tripp 4). Records — Westlake (13-11), Medina (15-6).