Boys basketball: Elyria High blown out in gym finale « The Chronicle-Telegram

Boys basketball: Elyria High blown out in gym finale

Filed by Tim Gebhardt March 1st, 2010 in High School Sports, Sports.

ELYRIA — The irony of Sunday night’s finale at the Elyria High gym may have been only appreciated by former assistant coach Bob Slager.

Slager, along with a number of former coaches and players, attended Sunday night’s game just as he witnessed the first one on Dec. 16, 1955. Findlay, Slager’s hometown growing up, easily defeated the Pioneers, 61-25, to open the gym 55 years ago. Sunday, Brunswick closed it by handing Elyria another one-sided loss, 70-36.

In between, Elyria won 414 games on that floor and lost only 182.

This year, Elyria finished 9-11 overall and in next-to-last place in the Northeast Ohio Valley Division at 2-8. Brunswick, second behind champion Medina in league play at 7-3, enters the tournament with an overall record of 16-4. The game was a make-up from Friday night.

More photos below.

“I don’t know if our guys understand the tradition and the history they were really playing for (Sunday),” Pioneers coach Brett Larrick said. “Our coaching staff sure does. Most of us played here, went here and are from here. Not sure our guys understood the magnitude and exactly how good Brunswick is. We have to practice better to be ready for Avon Lake (and the tournament).”

After a low-scoring first quarter, Brunswick opened the second on a 16-point run. It was all over by halftime.

Granted, the Blue Devils are a solid basketball team with good size and skill, but the Pioneers turned in one of their worst performances of the year. Elyria shot just 27 percent from the floor and was under 50 percent from the foul line.

The Blue Devils front line of 6-foot-6 Tyler Ferrell, 6-5 senior Kyle Payne and 6-9 junior Pat Forsythe was a nightmare matchup for Elyria. Brunswick dominated the rebounding with Payne picking off 12 and Ferrell and Forsythe nine each. Brunswick won the board battle, 43-29.

Payne led the scoring with 17 points, Ferrell added 14.

“It was a big letdown to get beat by so much,” said Elyria’s 6-5 junior post Chase Farris. “We had to play hard but everybody just backed down. Once you back down, it makes it all bad. It was too big of a deficit to come back from.”

Farris, with seven points and seven rebounds, led both categories for Elyria.

“Since Friday, we’ve been ready to play this game,” said Ferrell, Brunswick’s three-year senior starter. “We stayed focused all weekend.”

“We accomplished a lot of things by getting this game in,” Brunswick coach Joe Mackey said. “We get to play another game instead of sitting for 10 days. You never want to do that heading into the tournament. It was a good win for us. We were solid defensively as usual and we hit some timely baskets offensively.”

Brunswick’s defense was superb. Elyria didn’t get its 10th point until freshman Kody Bender sank a pair of free throws with only 1:37 left in the first half. By then, the Blue Devils were in front 27-11. The margin grew to 67-27 on a 3-pointer by Alex Hartill off the bench with 2:30 left in the game.

Larrick was disappointed with the final score, especially knowing this was the final game the Pioneers will play on this floor.

“We talked about it all week,” he said. “We talked about it before the game. It didn’t seem to motivate (our players) at all. For me, it means a lot. There were a lot of guys there that helped me tremendously along the way. Coach (Keith) Sooy was here, Coach (Art) Daniels was here. Guys I was a ball boy for were here. Guys I played with were here. To me, it means a lot and it’s frustrating having to sit on the sidelines not being able to change anything not being on the court. That’s the frustrating thing about coaching. You can’t get on the floor.”

Bruswick 70, Elyria 36

BRUNSWICK (70): Mike Fedj 1-0-3, Jeremy Salmonski 3-0-7, Tyler Ferrell 5-4-14, Kyle Payne 8-1-17, Pat Forsythe 2-3-7, Matt Dunning 2-1-6, Adam Bernard 0-0-0, Chase Laudato 2-0-4, Alex Hartill 1-2-5, Brian Cox 1-0-2, Zach Gresch 1-0-2, Scott Suren 0-0-0, Anthony Ocacio 1-0-3. Totals 26-11-70.

ELYRIA (36): Mike Cannon 0-0-0, Josh Brubaker 0-0-0, Zach Tanner 1-0-2, Matt Velazquez 2-0-4, Chase Farris 3-1-7, Devin Swedecki 1-1-3, Kody Bender 1-2 -5, Zach Zinimon 1-0-2, Mike Russelle 0-0-0, Anthoni Horton 1-1-3, Maurice Woods 1-0-2, Demetrius Walton 1-0-2, Yeshua Branch 1-2-4, Cecil Shelton 1-0-2. Totals 14-7-36.

Brunswick 11 21 17 21 — 70

Elyria 6 5 7 18 — 36

Three-point goals: Brunswick 4-21 (Salmonski, Dunning, Hartill, Ocacio), Elyria 1-5 (Bender). Field goals: Brunswick 26-59 (44 percent), Elyria 14-51 (27 percent). Free throws: Brunswick 11-15 (73 percent), Elyria 7-15 (47 percent). Rebounds: Brunswick 43 (Payne 12), Elyria 29 (Farris 7).Turnovers: Brunswick 5, Elyria 10. Fouls: Brunswick 13, Elyria 13.

Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7136 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.