Girls district basketball: Problems add up as Medina falls to Avon Lake

ELYRIA — The Medina girls basketball team's season ended in unceremonious fashion Tuesday with a 56-39 loss to Avon Lake in a Division 1, Northeast 5 District semifinal at Elyria Catholic. The 10th-seeded Shoreman (15-9) advanced to play top-seed Olmsted Falls in the district final Saturday. The problem for seventh-seeded Medina (16-9) was on several fronts. Shots weren't falling, the usually reliable defense showed cracks and the free throw shooting was subpar. "A lot of things went wrong," Medina senior post Mylie Roberts said after finishing with 10 points and five rebounds. "We didn't show up and play our game. I feel like we let them dictate the tempo a little bit and our shots weren't falling, so we were forcing it." Tied at 11 to start the second quarter and down just 20-19 With 2:50 to play in the half, the Bees went ice cold. "I feel like we were a little discouraged," point guard Kate Bobey said. "I thought we all tried our hardest and we really wanted to win." Medina made just 15-of-58 from the floor and 1-of-19 from beyond the 3-point line. "There were a lot of problems," Medina coach Karen Kase said. "It was shots not falling, letting them go around us on defense. We weren't sticking to the game plan. We felt ready and prepared. We thought we scouted them pretty well, but we just didn't have it tonight, and it was all across the board." A 15-5 run spanning the second and third quarters gave Avon Lake control and it maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way. The Medina defense struggled to contain drives into the lane and left shooters open on the perimeter. From the charity stripe the Bees made only 8-of-15 while Avon Lake made 17-of-19, with the majority of those coming in the second half as Medina tried to get back into the contest. "We didn't make a lot of anything," Kase said. "We just didn't have it and it's unfortunate because the last month and a half our practices were going well." Olivia Klanac led the Bees with 16 points and Kayla Joyner pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. "Some people were saying we were going to be .500 and it was going to be a difficult season," Kase said. "How would we get scoring, who was going to do this or that? They turned the season around and made some unbelievable moments and memories. We beat some really good teams." Contact Chad Grant at sports@medina-gazette.com. Avon Lake 56, Medina 39 AVON LAKE 11 13 15 17 — 56 MEDINA 11 8 9 11 — 49 Avon Lake — Brynn Bondar 0-0-0, Courtney Borland 4-1-10, Claire Springer 5-4-15, Marisa Summerfield 3-3-10, Izzie Polinko 3-3-11, Olivia Miller 1-4-6, Olivia Tobin 1-2-4, Leah Hicov 0-0-0, Bre Jones 0-0-0, Maya Austerman 0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-17-56. Medina — Kate Bobey 1-4-6, Mylie Roberts 5-0-10, Kayla Joyner 1-0-2, Olivia Klanac 6-3-16, Hailey Johnson 1-0-2, Addy Shook 0-0-0, Sylvie Hipp 0-0-0, Izzy Kurka 1-0-2, Jenna White 0-1-1, Kylie O'Cull 0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-8-39. 3-point goals — Polinko 2, Borland, Springer, Summerfield, Klanac. Rebounds — Avon Lake 36 (Summerfield 6), Medina 38 (Joyner 10). Assists — Avon Lake 11 (Borland, Polinko, Summerfield 3), Medina 3 (Klanac 2). Records — Avon Lake (15-9), Medina (16-9).