High school basketball: Costly turnovers, poor defense let North Royalton boys rally to beat Buckeye

YORK TWP. — The Buckeye boys basketball team had its non-league game against North Royalton in the bag Tuesday night. Then the bag ripped wide open. Up seven and in possession of the ball with less than two minutes to play, the Bucks committed some costly turnovers, failed to close out defensively and ended up losing 64-62. The Bears (3-5), who fell to Lorain a night earlier, scored just 19 points over the middle quarters but erupted for 27 in the fourth on 10-for-15 shooting, including 5-for-7 from behind the arc. The Bucks (3-4) were outscored 13-4 over the final 1:40. "It's sickening," said Buckeye point guard Danny Flood, who had 30 points on 10-for-27 shooting from the field and 10-for-12 at the line. "That's on us as a team. We just have to learn how to close out games." As explosive as he was at the offensive end — Flood had 12 points in the final period — the senior put a lot of the blame on himself for the two turnovers he committed down the stretch. "My team puts the ball in my hands at the end of games and counts on me to close it out," he said. "Turnovers can't happen in the fourth quarter, especially in a close game." Flood, small forward Caden Hudak (17 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists) and shooting guard Nick Prochaska (12 points, 4-for-4 shooting, all from behind the arc) combined to score all but three of Buckeye's points. Playing without power forward Nick Miller, who was out due to illness, the Bucks got three points on 1-for-2 shooting and six boards from center Luke Knittel, while the other three players who saw action were scoreless and attempted just two shots. Often playing with five players above the arc until someone drove and kicked, North Royalton tied the game at 62 on a 3-pointer by talented sophomore Jadallah Suleiman (18 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists) with 20.6 seconds to play. On Buckeye's ensuing possession, Flood pulled up for his trademark fadeaway near the elbow, only to have Suleiman come out of nowhere from the right side to block the shot. "I thought I had a great shot," Flood said. "They made a great play. Props to them." Compounding matters for the Bucks, the left-handed Suleiman came up with the loose ball, drove the length of the floor and was fouled just before the final buzzer went off. After officials put 0.5 seconds back on the clock, he made both free throws and Buckeye turned the ball over on its ensuing inbounds play. "We need to find a way to finish the game," Bucks coach Tom Harrington said. "It's a situation we have to be better at." Buckeye was outscored 33-15 from behind the 3-point arc, including 15-3 in the final period. The Bucks' one make was by Prochaska, who had three 3-pointers at the 3:27 mark of the opening period, then didn't take another shot until canning his final trifecta with 3:11 to play. In the end, the Bucks went from holding the Bears to 37 points through three periods to giving up 27 in the final quarter. "We had a couple turnovers and we overhelped a couple of times," Harrington said. "We had breakdowns we didn't have in the first three quarters." Despite Flood's 30-point outburst, the Bears made him work. He was 6-for-15 from the field while scoring 16 first-half points and was 6-for-20 for 18 points through three periods. Flood had eight straight Buckeye points over a 2:01 stretch of the first and second quarters before pouring in 12 in the fourth, when he went 4-for-7 from the floor and 4-for-5 at the line. "We were trying to wear Flood down so at the end of the game we could take advantage of something," said first-year North Royalton coach Ryan Holliday, a 1992 Cloverleaf graduate who spent the three previous seasons coaching the Colts junior varsity boys team. "I was really happy with the job we did." The Bears got 16 points off the bench from guard Will Moss, who had eight in the fourth quarter, nine from point guard Nate Sawyer, seven points, six rebounds and four assists from power forward Justin Penkalski and seven points and seven boards from center Jake Michalak. "Wow, that's a lot," Flood said when told of North Royalton's fourth-quarter outburst. "Sometimes you're so locked in to the game that you forget the game plan. Like Coach says, it's a mental game." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter. North Royalton 64, Buckeye 62 NORTH ROYALTON 18 12 7 27 — 64 BUCKEYE 22 12 9 19 — 62 North Royalton — Nick Calabianchi 1-0-3, Justin Penkalski 3-1-7, Jake Michalak 3-0-7, Jadallah Suleiman 6-4-18, Nate Sawyer 3-0-9, Kevin Bottomley 2-0-4, Will Moss 5-2-16, Brody Nahrstedt 0-0-0, Michael Piazza 0-0-0, Sasha Samjervic 0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-7-64. Buckeye — Caden Hudak 6-4-17, Joey Lenarth 0-0-0, Luke Knittel 1-1-3, Nick Prochaska 4-0-12, Danny Flood 10-10-30, Connor Greer 0-0-0, Kaymen Marshall 0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-15-62. 3-point goals — Moss 4, Sawyer 3, Suleiman 2, Calabianchi, Michalak, Prochaska 4, Hudak. Rebounds — North Royalton 26 (Michalak 7), Buckeye 29 (Hudak 11). Assists — North Royalton 13 (Suleiman 6), Buckeye 7 (Hudak 3). Records — North Royalton (3-5), Buckeye (3-4). Junior varsity — North Royalton 42, Buckeye 29.