Boys basketball: Buckeye falls behind early, loses to Keystone

YORK TWP. — The Buckeye boys basketball team dug itself an early hole it couldn't climb out of Tuesday night in an 81-64 non-league loss to Keystone. Playing for the second consecutive night, the Bucks (7-5) fell behind 18-5 in the first quarter when the Wildcats (12-1) went on a 16-0 run. The Bucks never got closer than eight after that. Buckeye was without leading scorer Turner Dolata, who was injured Monday night in a loss at Norton. Then the Bucks lost Scott DiMarco to an injury midway through the first quarter Tuesday. "It's terrible," Buckeye junior guard Austin Hyre said. "Turner obviously is one of our best scorers. He brings scoring for us, rebounding for us. And then Scott is a great spot shooter. It's just really tough to lose those two guys on back-to-back nights." Keystone was led by sophomore Liam Goran, who scored 40 points, including seven 3-pointers. He scored 27 of his points in the first half, outscoring the Bucks 27-26 by himself through the game's first 16 minutes. Freshman Colt Cowling scored 24 points for the Wildcats, giving their top scoring duo a combined 64 points to equal the entire output of the Bucks. Hyre did all he could offensively to try to keep Buckeye in the game, scoring a career-high 31 points, including 15 of Buckeye's 26 in the first half. He also knocked down five 3-pointers one night after his shot was off and he couldn't hit from deep. "I like being able to take on that challenge," Hyre said. "Not to make excuses, but I was still feeling a little sick (Monday), but I'm trying to get that out." Derek Snyderburn scored 14 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds while starting for Dolata. Logan Brown added nine points, Nolan Klingbeil had six points and Jacob Snyberburn added four. After winning six straight games, the Bucks have now dropped two in a row and will hope to get back to their winning ways Friday against Rocky River and Saturday against Olmsted Falls. "Coach (Jeremy Salmonski) said we're going to get some shots up (at practice)," Hyre said. "We do need to shoot the ball a little bit more at practice and then hope we can rebound Friday against a good Rocky River team." One thing that was certain the last two nights was that the Bucks will play all 32 minutes, as they never hung their heads Tuesday despite trailing by as many as 20 points. "We fight," Hyre said. "We always try to play through the last minute. We do everything we can." Contact Ryan Isley at sports@medina-gazette.com. Keystone 81, Buckeye 64 KEYSTONE&emsp;20 26 14 21 — 81 BUCKEYE&emsp;7 19 17 21 — 64 Keystone — Liam Goran 14-5-40, Brendan Hagerman 0-2-2, Zach Shackelford 2-0-5, Emory Fedor 3-2-8, Colt Cowling 11-2-24, Logan Nagle 0-0-0, Trevor Blackburn 1-0-2. TOTALS: 31-11-81. Buckeye — Scott DiMarco 0-0-0, Derek Snyderburn 5-4-14, Nolan Klingbeil 3-0-6, Austin Hyre 12-2-31, Travis Avallone 0-0-0, Jacob Snyderburn 1-1-4, Andrew Tessman 0-0-0, Logan Brown 3-3-9. TOTALS: 24-10-64 3-point goals — Goran 7, Shackelford, Hyre 5, J. Snyderburn Rebounds — Keystone 20 (Goran 5), Buckeye 25 (D. Snyberburn 7). Assists — Keystone 13 (Hagerman 4), Buckeye 11 (Avallone 3). Records — Keystone (12-1), Buckeye (7-5). Junior varsity — Keystone 56, Buckeye 47 (B: Zach Stough 14).