Girls basketball: Points keep piling up for Medina's Olivia Klanac in win over Rocky River

BEREA — After becoming the program's all-time leading scorer three nights earlier, Medina girls basketball player Olivia Klanac nearly followed with another record-breaking performance Saturday afternoon. Klanac piled game highs of 33 points, 10 rebounds and six assists to lead Medina to a 66-47 victory over Rocky River in the first game of the Cleveland Basketball Classic at Baldwin Wallace's Ursprung Gymnasium. The 33 points were three points shy of the program record shared by Klanac and Shelly Miller. The fact that performance moved the Bees to 3-0 on the young season was most important to Klanac, who made five of her team's eight 3-pointers. "This was definitely going to be a big win for either team, no matter who won," said Klanac, who scored 18 points in the first half. "It definitely feels good to be 3-0 after the week. Our last game wasn't as competitive as we would have hoped, so this was a big step up for that. "I'm proud of how we played and picked it up in the second half." The Pirates fell to 2-1 in a battle of the regional finalist Bees and district finalist Rocky River from last season. The Bees also got 14 points and nine rebounds from forward Addy Shook and five points, six rebounds and five assists from Abby Dress. Though Medina only trailed in the first two minutes of the game, the Pirates refused to go quietly no matter how many runs the Bees threw at them. It wasn't until Medina went on a 13-4 spurt to end the third quarter up 51-40 that the Bees got comfortable with a double-digit lead. "I feel like it was a really solid team win," Shook said. "I think we started off pretty flat, but after the first half we really picked up the energy and earned that win." The 13-4 run answered a 10-0 run by the Pirates over the first four minutes, in which Olivia Dewey scored all five of her points, including a bucket with 4:17 left in the period that cut Medina's lead to 40-38. The Bees had led 38-26 at halftime. Klanac (9 points) and Shook (4) accounted for all of the Bees points in the only quarter in which they were outscored. "During halftime, we were all kind of dead," Klanac said. "It is a bigger court, so we were running a lot more than normal. I think we just had to find our own energy and feed off the bench energy. That's big for us." Nora Bruder led a balanced Rocky River attack with 12 points. Rori Vesy and Elizabeth Lang added eight points apiece. Lang added a team-high seven rebounds and point guard Bridget Carlin had five points, three rebounds and four assists. Answering Lang's physical presence in the post was critical for Medina. Once the Bees had a handle on Lang, who spent large portions of the game in foul trouble, they were able to build a 43-30 advantage on the boards and force 21 turnovers. Medina turned the ball over 14 times but only three in the second half. "She's a pretty big body down there," Shook said of Lang. "We had to make sure we limited her rebounds, her putbacks and make sure she didn't have that much of an impact offensively." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Medina 66, Rocky River 47 MEDINA 20 18 13 15 — 66 ROCKY RIVER 16 10 14 7 — 47 Medina — Vivian Kelps 1-0-2, Addy Shook 5-3-14, Abby Dress 2-0-5, Olivia Klanac 11-6-33, Molly Gilbert 2-1-6, Gillian Kurka 2-0-4, Bri Kudley 1-0-2, Aly Gacek 0-0-0, Kori Swihart 0-0-0, Emma Hierhart 0-0-0, Sydney Novak 0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-10-66. Rocky River — Olivia Dewey 2-0-5, Nora Bruder 4-3-12, Elizabeth Lang 3-2-8, Claudia Roche 1-1-4, Bridget Carlin 2-0-5, Angelina Swallow 0-0-0, Addison Russell 0-0-0, Emma Vladescu 2-0-5, Taylor Bolas 0-0-0, Reagan Kane 0-0-0, Maliyah McGinty 0-0-0, Rori Vesy 3-0-8, Maia Petrulis 0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-6-47. 3-point goals — Klanac 5, Gilbert, Dress, Shook, Vesy 2, Bruder, Carlin, Vladescu, Roche, Dewey. Rebounds — Medina 43 (Klanac 10), Rocky River 30 (Lang 7). Assists — Medina 14 (Klanac 6), Rocky River 10 (Carlin 4). Records — Rocky River (2-1), Medina (3-0).