High school basketball: Slow and steady wins the sectional final for Highland boys against North Ridgeville

GRANGER TWP. — The Elyria Catholic Division I Sectional final between the Highland and North Ridgeville boys basketball teams Saturday was a clash in styles. When the smoke cleared, the Hornets pounded the ball inside enough to post a 68-61 win. No. 25 Highland (15-9), winner of seven straight, will have a tall task at 7 p.m. Wednesday against third-seeded St. Ignatius (12-11), while 26th-seeded North Ridgeville finished 12-12. The Rangers' game plan was to drive and kick quickly to speed the Hornets, who are quite content burning 30 or 40 seconds on each possession. Highland withstood the pressure, hit the glass on the offensive end — the Hornets won the overall rebounding battle 37-25 — and had 19 second-chance points. Highland outrebounded Ridgeville 13-5 the first quarter but only led 16-14 after the Rangers' Eyan Schulz scored eight of his nine points to offset six by Will Hoynes and 3-pointers from Aaron Filips (season-low 3 points) and Hunter Winston (13). "I thought the way we hit the offensive glass really set the tone for this game," Hornets coach Adam Cestaro said. "We really hit the glass hard in the first quarter and just stayed on it for the rest of the game, and that's huge in such a tight tournament game." Leading 31-29, Highland came out in the third and clearly wanted to get the ball to 6-foot-5 senior Hoynes, who scored eight of his 18 points in the first four minutes for a 44-37 lead. "I think we really wanted to work on getting the ball moving since they (Rangers) were doubling every chance they could," Hoynes said. "We just had to find the open guy, and that just happened to be me in the third." Despite the success for Hoynes, the Rangers responded with four points from Griffin Turay (19 points), a bucket from R.J. Schneider and a free throw from Collin Jones to trail 48-44 going to the fourth. The fourth turned out to be very good for the Hornets, who held North Ridgeville to just four points in the first six minutes. Highland responded with a 12-4 run, as Griffin Albright (14 points) scored seven straight points, including a 3-pointer, to give the Hornets their largest lead at 60-48. "I just wanted to win so bad, I knew I had to do something to make sure that happened," Albright said. "They (Rangers) really wanted to speed us up, and we worked on slowing things down to our pace." North Ridgeville got as close as five points in the waning seconds on a Turay 3-pointer, but time ran out and Highland finished the home season 9-3. "This was a four-point game for most of the second half, and they (Highland) were just out of their mind when it came to finishing," first-year Rangers coach Ben Chase said. "We went through our entire defensive options tonight to find a stop. We just couldn't get those two or three straight defensive stops so we could go on a run. "That really was the difference tonight. It stinks to not get this one. I feel we really could have won this game." Contact James Brady at sports@medina-gazette.com. Highland 68, North Ridgeville 61 NORTH RIDGEVILLE&emsp;&emsp;14 15 15 17 — 61 HIGHLAND&emsp;&emsp;16 15 17 20 — 68 North Ridgeville — Collin Jones 3-2-8, Griffin Turay 7-3-19, Carson Iezzi 0-0-0, RJ Schneider 4-0-8, Jake Boynar 7-1-17, Colin McIntyre 0-0-0, Eyan Schulz 3-1-9. TOTALS: 24-7-61. Highland — Aaron Filips 1-0-3, Hunter Winston 6-3-16, William Hoynes 7-4-18, Adam Coss 3-4-10, Griffin Albright 4-4-14, Maddox Albright 3-0-7, Jack Buzzard 0-0-0, Liam Kenny 0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-15-68. 3-point goals — Turay 2, Boynar 2, Schulz 2, G. Albright 2, Filips, Winston, M. Albright. Rebounds — North Ridgeville 25, Highland 37. Records — North Ridgeville (12-12), Highland (15-9).