Text Box: Avon Lake Shoremen Basketball

Last update:  02/03/08

Game Summary:    N. Royalton  01/08

Avon Lake

Shoremen

 

N. Royalton Bears

VS

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Shoremen get OT WIN in The "Gatorade Bowl" 

 

The 5-3 Jr. Shoremen had their work cut out for them Tuesday night on the rode against the 6-2 North Royalton Bears. There were plenty of thrills and spills in this game.   The opening points were scored by the Shoremen's Dom Whitfield, but the NR Bears came back on a 3 pointer. Brandon Muck followed with in the paint with a left handed lay-up. Trent Toy went on a 5 points for the Shoremen.   Three points from the free throw line with one capping off a 3 point play.  Mike Magyar then made a strong move into the lane driving pass his man to score giving the Shoremen a 6 point lead.   Brandon Koprowski made the only other basket for the Shoremen on a nice rebound put-back that gave Avon Lake a  2 point lead at the end of the first quarter with the score 13-11.

 

The second quarter started promising on a Brandon Muck was steal and easy lay-up to give the Shoremen a 15-11 lead.  However the remaining of the second quarter saw both teams stepping up the defense.  The Shoremen lead vanished during some scrappy play by both sides and at half time the Bears had out scored the Shoremen 7-14 to give them  the lead 20-25 at the intermission. 

 

The third quarter kicked in for the Shoremen with five quick points sparked by Patrick England's nice feed to  Trent Toy who promptly put 2 points on the board. After a foul and a free throw by the Bears T.J. Thompson hit a 17' jumper off of the baseline to bring the Shoremen within 2. North Royalton scored again on a jumper , but the Shoremen's Dom Whitfield responded with a 3-Pointer to pull the Shoremen within one. Brandon Muck, who was fouled on a steal and lay up attempt, made free throws to  give the Shoremen the lead by one with 1:36 left in the 3rd quarter.  At this point the infamous "Gatorade Bowl" kicked in.  One of the North Royalton players jumped over a chair on the sideline trying to save the ball, and in the process of doing so spilled a full Gatorade container of water on the floor.   After a 22 minute comical delay,  the Bears tied it on a free throw and at the end of the third quarter 29-29. 

 

This was anybody's game going into the 4th quarter.  Dom Whitfield was the first to score on an offensive rebound.   Trent Toy made a pair of free throws and Dan Olemacher had a nice offensive put back as the Shoremen went up by six. Patrick England capped off a driving lay-up and a foul for a 3 point play to give the Shoremen 38-29 lead before the Bears scored in the second half.  However, the Bears were not going to hibernate for long as they worked their way back into it with good perimeter shooting while the Shoremen were forced to the line. During this spurt, The Bears went on to a 12-2 run to give them the edge before Mike Magyar made 2 free throws to pull the Shoremen within one. The Bears scored the next two and seemingly had the game at hand.  With 6.7 seconds left the Shoremen set up a play however, when the shot missed, T.J. Thompson alertly grabbed the ball on the baseline took two quick dribbles back and launched a 3-Pointer that found the bottom of the net at the buzzer to send the game into over time! Score 43-43!

 

It was all Shoremen in the over time period. The Shoremen stood strong in the opening possession defensively then T.J. Thompson put them up by 2. Two free throws by Mike Magyar and one by T.J. Thompson put the Shoremen up by 5 before the Bears scored in OT.  The Shoremen were content to control the ball with the lead and pulled out the OT victory in bizarre manner at North Royalton.  For those attending the game I don't think anyone will ever forget the "Gatorade Bowl" .

 

 

 

 

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Text Box: Bears Catch Shoremen in Hibernation!

Text Box: The Shoremen (7-1) visited the North Royalton Bears (3-6) on Tuesday night trying to capture a non-conference win after a frustrating Home defeat at the hands of North Olmsted last Friday.  Things looked great for the Shoremen early as Tommy Kuzniar started the first quarter with 2 quick points on a 18' baseline jumper.  He quickly followed that with a 3-pointer making it 5-0 Avon Lake, and the rout was on!  Unfortunately, the good news ended there.  The Bears 1-2-1-1 Full Court Zone press gave the Shoremen fits and their half court pressure defense made it difficult for the Shoremen to get good looks at the basket.  The Big front line of the Bears 6'4" Lebo, 6'6" France and 6'5" Weber took up a lot of space offensively and defensively.  As the Shoremen tried to counter offensively with their Hi-Low Power offense it clashed with the Bear "beef" on the inside making it difficult to get shots or create cutting lanes for the Shoremen.  At the 2:00 minute mark Tommy Kuzniar hit a 3 pointer to cut the Bear lead to 14-8, the first basket by the Shoremen in over 3 minutes.  Avon Lake cut the lead to 14-11 on a Kuzniar 3 and Parker Russell capitalized on a nice in-the-paint drive 3-point play 16-14. The Bears closed the 1st with a Big Three pointer to make it 19-14 at the end of the 1st. Text Box: The second quarter was all Bears as the Shoremen offense went into hibernation.  Second shots off rebounds helped the Bears push the lead to 25-14 at the 5:47 mark. Homenik and Firment teamed up for a fast break 2-point play and Nick Firment hit a shot off a loose ball and was fouled for a  3-pt play, 254-19 Bears.  The Bears quickly countered with a 2 point lay-up and a back-breaking 3-pointer by Lebo, 32-19 Bears. Jeff Ickes hit a driving lay-up to cut the lead 32-21, but Steve Weber drilled another 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to end the 1st half, 35-21.  The Shoremen needed to re-group and reload for the second half if they were to make a run! Text Box: The third quarter saw the Shoremen cut the lead to 39-33 on nice plays from Herrilko, Ickes and Tim Daniels spitting a pair of free throws.  Parker Russell capped off the Shoremen run with a nice fade-away off-the-glass bank shot over outstretched  6'6" France.   However, with 2:38 remaining in the third the Bears capitalized on a couple Shoremen turnovers resulting in quick transition baskets pushing the lead 43-33.  Homenik was fouled at the end of the quarter splitting a pair of Free Throws making it 43-34 at the end of the third quarter.  Text Box: The 4th quarter started slowly for both teams, in addition to being stone cold from the field the Shoremen were having difficulty initiating the Hi-Low Power offense, creating space and getting open shots. The Bears finally scored at the 6:30 mark in the 4th to make it 45-34.  North Royalton and Avon Lake traded baskets from Firment  and Dan France.  The Bears were able to push the tempo following Shoremen turnovers and quick rebounds resulting in easy baskets for the Bears now up 51-36.  At the 4:00 minute mark T. Kuzniar broke the scoring drought hitting one of two free throws, 51-39.  Seemingly, every time the Shoremen made a basket and an apparent "run" North Royalton followed up with two baskets of their own.  At the 2:45 mark Firment hit two free throws cutting the lead to 57-44, but the game was already out of hand and North Royalton ran out the clock with a final score of 62-48.  The loss was only the second of the season (7-2), but is a game the Shoremen surely want back!  Next stop HOME against conference foe Brecksville! GO SHOREMEN !

 

 

Team

1st

2nd

Total

Avon Lake

21

27

48

N. Royalton

35

27

62

Team

1st

2nd

OT

Total

Avon Lake

20

23

10

53

N. Royalton

25

18

5

48