Boys district basketball: Medina Christian eliminated at last second for second straight year

SMITHVILLE — The defensive strategy was executed to near-perfection Saturday night. The Medina Christian boys basketball team locked in, pushed 5-foot-7 Fairport Harding star Yomar Castellano to the timeline and steered him at top speed toward his student section, still well above the 3-point line. Everyone in Wilbur Berkey Fieldhouse expected a falling, fadeaway prayer from NBA range. Castellano had other plans, twisting his body and firing a leaping, two-handed skip pass back across the arc. Shane Greenwood was ready to shoot and let a 25-footer fly. The ball found nothing but net as time expired, leading to bedlam of such a degree that tournament organizers had to sternly announce for everyone to clear the floor for the awards ceremony. The Division VII, Northeast 3 District championship game was a classic: Skippers 67, Knights 66. Jubilation on one side and stunning heartbreak on the other. "I told them I love them, because I do," Medina Christian coach Rob Walgate said while fighting back tears. "If people would have said three years ago Medina Christian was going to do what they did, everyone would have said, 'Who?' Our kids worked their tails off every day for this. I'm proud of each of them, I'm proud of each of them. That was the message. "We're Medina Christian. We say when we win, Jesus is the same as when we lose. He's the constant in our lives. Our emotions go up and down. Jesus is the constant. That message has to be consistent, so that was the message. They're bummed. I'm bummed. You're playing for another day of practice." Greenwood's shot was the fifth of the final two minutes in which second-seeded Fairport Harding (22-2), which advanced to play Columbiana Heartland Christian (21-4) at Barberton on Tuesday, had a chance to tie or take the lead. The other four went begging, giving sixth-seeded Medina Christian (15-10) opportunities to escape after leading 60-51 with 3:52 left. The Knights were brilliantly efficient for nearly 30 minutes, shooting 24-for-40 from the field (.600), 5-for-9 from 3-point range (.556) and 13-for-17 at the line (.765). There were what-ifs, however, that included two ill-advised transition shots up 63-59 and 63-60, a turnover with the latter score and 1-of-4 free throw shooting in the final 32.5 seconds. The final two spun out with 11.9 seconds remaining. Fairport Harding crossed center court and called timeout with 5.5 seconds left, only to set up an inbounds play in front of its bench that broke down immediately. Luckily for the Skippers, they had the magic combination to beat Medina Christian at the buzzer for the second straight season, with last season's score being 74-71. "I played so hard I didn't even have tears left," Knights center Sam Dorman said before being interrupted by three consoling Fairport Harding fans, including a young boy who was star-struck as he shook Dorman's hand. "I couldn't even cry, but I just want to say I'm so proud of our team for showing up the way that we did. We played as hard as we could and got so much better." Despite battling an ankle injury and illness, Dorman was a matchup nightmare for the much smaller Skippers and finished with another virtuoso performance of 29 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. The 6-5 acrobat scored four straight points in 26 seconds, including a tough driving shot from the left side of the paint, to give the Knights their biggest lead with 3:52 to go. R.J. Walgate was another problem for Fairport Harding, putting up 19 points on 6-of-6 field goals to go with six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. The stellar junior duo scored 25 of the team's 27 points in the first half, but Medina Christian got gigantic 3-pointers from Maddox Tousley and Troy Reidl, who saw the most significant minutes of his career, as well as a quick four points from backup post Jaxon Longsdorf in the second half. A guard-heavy team built around 5-7 Yomar Castellano, 5-6 Jan Castellano and the 5-11 Greenwood, Fairport Harding entered play leading all of D-VII with a 79.7 scoring average. Yomar Castellano overcame a 2-for-11 start to finish with 19 points, five rebounds and six assists, Jan Castellano was brilliant among the trees en route to 14 points, eight assists and only one turnover before fouling out and Greenwood finished with 16 points that included a 4-for-7 effort from deep. "We played great," Rob Walgate said. "We matched them punch for punch." The game was nip-and-tuck virtually the entire way, with Medina Christian doing a good job controlling a slower pace and finding the right matchups for Dorman and Walgate to exploit. The Skippers got enough points from Jan Castellano and role players Kam Leftwich and Ben Allen to hang around, though, before Yomar Castellano could regain his shooting touch. The Knights nursed a 27-25 halftime lead, but pace began to increase when bigger, slower Medina Christian switched to a 1-3-1 zone to conserve energy. Fairport Harding then appeared to be unraveling with four quick fouls to begin the fourth quarter, and a careless violation 80 feet from the basket put the Knights into the bonus up 56-51 with 4:18 left. Dorman's 4-0 personal run pushed the lead to nine, but the Skippers kept chipping away. Yomar Castellano's 25-footer from the top of the arc brought the score to 65-63, and a free throw split by Greenwood made it 66-64. That set up two Knights free throws that looked true but agonizingly spun out and the roar after Greenwood's shot that was probably heard all the way back on the shores of Lake Erie. Tears flowed and blank stares were spread all along the Medina Christian bench during the awards ceremony, but the Knights still felt they had arrived on the big stage. "We've only been the OHSAA for three years," Dorman said. "I doubt more than 100 people knew that we existed. Now we have so many schools that know us, so it's definitely a testament to the work we've put in." Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com. Fairport Harding 67, Medina Christian 66 Division VII, Northeast 3 District Final MEDINA CHRISTIAN 12 15 20 19 — 66 FAIRPORT HARDING 11 14 22 20 — 67 Medina Christian — Maddox Tousley 2-0-5, Isaac Maletich 1-2-4, Sam Dorman 11-3-29, Preston Collins 0-0-0, R.J. Walgate 6-6-19, Nick Malicoat 0-0-0, Jaxon Longsdorf 2-0-4, Troy Reidl 1-2-5. TOTALS: 24-13-66. Fairport Harding — Shane Greenwood 5-2-16, Kam Leftwich 4-0-9, Ben Allen 2-2-6, Yomar Castellano 7-2-19, Jan Castellano 4-6-14, Isaac Maldonado 1-1-3, Brady Lawson 0-0-0. TOTALS: 23-13-67. 3-point goals — Dorman 2, Tousley, Walgate, Reidl, Y. Greenwood 4, Castellano 3, Leftwich. Rebounds — Medina Christian 29 (Dorman 11), Fairport Harding 22 (Allen, Y. Castellano 5). Assists — Medina Christian 9 (Collins 3), Fairport Harding 15 (J. Castellano 8). Records — Medina Christian (15-10), Fairport Harding (22-2).