High school basketball: Amherst boys race out to early lead, but Medina wins decisively

LAKEWOOD — Fired-up coach Chris Hassinger was the last member of the Medina boys basketball team to enter the postgame locker room. Hassinger excitedly pulled open the door, pumped his fists and screamed "Let's freaking gooooo!" at the top of his lungs, sending an already elated group of 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds into pandemonium. Crushing a quality opponent can lead to those type of moments, especially after the way the eighth-seeded Bees obliterated No. 11 Amherst in a 66-41 Lakewood Division I District semifinal Thursday night. An impressive final score, for sure, but consider this: Medina (14-8) trailed the Comets (18-6) 13-0 a mere 4:19 in before scoring the next 14 points while embarking on a 30-3 run that left everyone in awe. "I told a couple of our coaches, 'We've got some really nervous guys,"' said Hassinger, whose team will play in a district final for the sixth time in his eight seasons, this time against top-seeded St. Edward (18-5) Saturday night. "We knew (the Comets) were going to be really aggressive early, and I think our guys panicked a little bit. We used a decently quick timeout, collected everybody and get them fired up and upset a little bit. "Sometimes when you're mad, you forget how nervous you are." In a classic case of when pregame plans are quickly scrapped, Hassinger and the Bees initially wanted to keep smaller, quick-triggered Amherst off-balance with a slower pace. The problem was the Comets systematically torched Medina with an unselfish motion offense and the Bees ran their offense with the intensity of an early-morning shootaround. The Bees' first five possessions resulted in four turnovers and a bricked layup. Comets guards Austin Bray (14 points) and George Fayer (5, 2-for-12 shooting) made them pay, and a Bray steal-and-score made the score 13-0 with 3:41 left in the opening period. An already livid Hassinger called timeout, lit into his team, inserted bench players Jajuan Jackson, Drew Hensley, Michael Rodak and Stephen Mosack and belted "Go!" anytime the Bees got the ball in the backcourt. In a matter of eight incredible minutes, all nine Medina rotational players scored as the Bees ran Amherst into the ground with their size, speed, aggression and physicality, culminating with a Luke Klanac free throw that made the score 30-16. The Comets never got closer than 10 the rest of the night. "Seeing (Hassinger) fired up just gave us a little bit more edge to get going," said Medina forward Bryce Beech, who hit two 3-pointers en route to 10 points during the surge. "We knew being down 13 right off the bat that we had to get something going quick. That's a lot of ground to cover up in the district semis." In what has become a hallmark when this season's team plays well, seven players scored at least five points and the two who didn't — Mosack (6 rebounds) and Carter Hipp (6 assists) — contributed heavily in other ways. Klanac led in scoring with only 11 points, followed by Matt Spatny (10), Beech (10, 5 rebounds, 4 steals), Hensley (8), Tre Hammond (7), Jackson (6, 6 assists) and Rodak (5). Medina played free and loose after the awful start and shared the ball brilliantly en route to 19 assists on 26 buckets. The Bees finished 26-for-45 from the floor (.578), 8-for-20 from 3-point range and 6-for-10 at the foul line despite sleepwalking at the start. The exclamation point came with 4:40 remaining, as Jackson split a gap, flew down the left side of the paint and hammered a semi-contested two-handed dunk that sent the bench into hysteria and put Medina ahead 56-34. Already exhausted by that point, Amherst had nothing left to counter. "That came from my boy Corey Tripp," Jackson said of the 2021 Medina graduate and Gazette MVP. "He inspired me, for real." Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com. Medina 66, Amherst 41 Lakewood Division I District Semifinal AMHERST&emsp;&emsp;13 7 9 12 — 41 MEDINA&emsp;&emsp;11 25 11 19 — 66 Amherst — Jordan Koury 2-5-9, George Gotsis 1-0-2, Torre Witherspoon 1-1-3, Austin Bray 6-1-14, George Fayer 2-1-5, Nick Hamilick 2-0-4, Austin Kucirek 2-0-4, Sam Risdon 0-0-0, Landen Bray 0-0-0, Justin Zakrajsek 0-0-0, Trent Odelli 0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-8-41. Medina — Bryce Beech 3-2-10, Tre Hammond 3-0-7, Matt Spatny 5-0-10, Luke Klanac 4-3-11, Carter Hipp 2-0-4, Jajuan Jackson 2-1-6, Drew Hensley 3-0-8, Michael Rodak 2-0-5, Stephen Mosack 1-0-2, Ben Butler 0-0-0, Sahib Singh 0-0-0, Brennen Schramm 0-0-0, Hunter Smith 0-0-0, Brock Beech 0-0-0, Benny Meyers 1-0-3. TOTALS: 26-6-66. 3-point goals — A. Bray, Beech 2, Hensley 2, Rodak, Meyers, Jackson, Hammond. Rebounds — Amherst 14 (Koury 4), Medina 32 (Beech, Mosack 6). Assists — Amherst 8 (Fayer 3), Medina 19 (Jackson, Hipp 6). Records — Amherst (18-6), Medina (14-8).