Boys basketball: Brunswick beats Buckeye in rare meeting of county neighbors

BRUNSWICK — In keeping with the Christmas season, both boys basketball teams emphasized the positive Tuesday night after Brunswick defeated Buckeye 71-50 in a revamped Josh Herron Holiday Hoops Classic game. The Blue Devils (3-1), who got 17 points, six rebounds and one monster calf cramp from shooting guard Sean Barnett, 16 points and four boards from center Aidan Shaker and 14 points and four boards from power forward Ethan Jean, chose to look at how well they played for most of the first half and fourth period. "Overall, it was pretty good because we won," the 6-foot-6 Shaker said. "There were times our defense would let up and give up a couple of threes and let them back in it, but overall I thought our offense was pretty good." The Division III Bucks (1-3), who got a game-high 19 points from shooting guard Austin Hyre and 13 points off the bench from forward Derek Snyderburn, chose to look at how hard they battled against a team that nearly reached the D-I state tournament a season ago. "I take a lot of satisfaction from this," the extremely quick Hyre said. "We lost by four points in the second half, so we know we have to put two solid halves together. The first half killed us. They're a tough team. They've got a lot of guys who can make shots." It was the first meeting between the Medina County neighbors since Dec. 9, 1989, when Brunswick won 43-42. The Bucks' last victory over the Blue Devils was 75-70 on Jan. 29, 1985. The game Tuesday was part of the revamped Herron Classic. Akron East dropped out of the event, so it will conclude with Brunswick playing North Ridgeville on Dec. 27 and the Bucks taking on the Rangers on Dec. 28. Both games will be at Brunswick. The Blue Devils were once again playing without star junior point guard Trey Drexler, who has started since he was a freshman. Drexler is recovering from a head injury and is expected to return soon. "We still have to perform when he's not playing," Shaker said. "We have to use it as motivation for us to step up and play new roles without him. We can't use him not playing as an excuse." Brunswick never trailed and the outcome was never in any serious doubt, but the Bucks had their moments throughout. The Blue Devils led 9-2 off the jump and used an 11-0 spurt that featured a big Shaker dunk to go up 28-13 with 5:52 left in the first half. The Blue Devils went on to lead by 19 late in the second quarter, in which Adin Evert came off the bench to score seven of his eight points, before settling for a 37-20 lead at halftime. Hyre, who scored seven points in a 2:43 stretch in the first quarter, made things a little interesting by pouring in 10 points in just 2:10 to make it 39-28 with 5:45 left in the third period. "I can put up points in bunches, but sometimes I have to do other things when my shots aren't going down," the junior said. "I have to do it for the whole game." The Blue Devils got their lead back to 53-40 at the end of the third, then put the game away on back-to-back, top-of-the-key 3-pointers from Jean that made it 61-42 with 5:01 to play. Brunswick also got seven points and six rebounds from small forward Matt Morgan and six points and four assists from point guard Shawn Grabowski, while Buckeye got six points and four rebounds from 6-8 sophomore center Nolan Klingbeil and six points and team highs of seven rebounds and four assists from 6-5 junior small forward Turner Dolata. Dolata, who finished 2-for-9 from the floor, didn't score until the 3:28 mark of the third quarter, but didn't let that keep him from doing other things to help the Bucks. "I thought we played great," Hyre said. "We could have played better, but other teams (in the Cleveland West Conference) who saw that, they know. The past few years have not been good, but we're ready now." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X. Brunswick 71, Buckeye 50 Josh Herron Holiday Hoops Classic BUCKEYE 13 7 20 10 — 50 BRUNSWICK 19 18 16 18 — 71 Buckeye — Scott DiMarco 1-2-5, Turner Dolata 2-1-6, Nolan Klingbeil 3-0-6, Austin Hyre 7-2-19, Travis Avallone 0-1-1, Logan Brown 0-0-0, Derek Snyderburn 6-0-13, Jacob Snyderburn 0-0-0, Blake Zacharias 0-0-0, Andrew Tesman 0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-6-50. Brunswick — Matt Morgan 3-0-7, Ethan Jean 4-3-14, Aidan Shaker 6-4-16, Sean Barnett 5-5-17, Shawn Grabowski 2-0-6, Luke Stella 1-1-3, Adin Evert 3-1-8, Drew Matus 0-0-0, Brandt Almady 0-0-0, Dillon Vinson 0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-14-71. 3-point goals — Hyre 3, D. Snyderburn, Dolata, DiMarco, Jean 3, Barnett 2, Grabowski 2, Morgan, Evert. Rebounds — Buckeye 21 (Dolata 7), Brunswick 25 (Morgan, Barnett 6). Assists — Buckeye 10 (Dolata 4), Brunswick 9 (Grabowski 4). Buckeye (1-3), Brunswick (3-1). Junior varsity — Brunswick 65, Buckeye 19 (Bru: Drew Matus 13, Dirk Ziegler 10).