EATON TWP. – They may have finished no better than a tie for third place with two schools in their own league and they may have lost their regular-season finale.

In fact, they split their last six games to finish the regular season at a so-so 14-6.

But today the Avon Lake Shoremen wear the Division I district championship crown for the first time in school history as they continued a near-perfect tournament run with a 52-46 win Saturday over favored and top-seeded Medina (20-3). Avon Lake advances to the Cleveland State regional against Mentor on Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. Mentor beat Brush 88-73.

Avon Lake has been to the Sweet 16 before – the latest in 2000, when it beat SWC rival Olmsted Falls for the Division II championship at Admiral King. But this is the first at the big-school level.

“It’s nothing different from what we did,” said coach Eric Smith. “We’re just getting better at what we do. As the season’s evolved, we’ve really become a team.”

And how.

Avon Lake started the tournament with a 48-43 squeaker over Elyria, followed by an overtime win against Berea, a team that had beaten the Shoremen twice in SWC play, including the finale. That set up the district sweep of two of the Northeast Ohio Conference’s best in Brunswick and Medina. The two entered tournament play with only six losses between them.

The Shoremen had the right script for both with a hellacious defensive effort and a patient, unselfish offensive scheme. Brunswick and Medina like to push the tempo, and Avon Lake likes to wear your defense down with pass after pass after pass.

“We spread the floor out,” said junior Ronnie Willoughby, who had 13 points, including a pair of huge 3-pointers. “Just like we did against Brunswick, they would get tired after a little bit. Once we spread them out, we got some backdoors and open lanes to drive.”

“Coach Smith, Coach (Dave) Borish spend a lot of time in the film room and told us exactly what we needed to do. We knew everything that was coming. When you have that kind of help from your coaches, it does so much for you.”

“Best game plan we could have had to stop the big guys on both Brunswick and Medina,” said sophomore Eric Stuczynski.

“They are unselfish,” said Smith. “They play together. They don’t care who gets the credit or who scores. They get the ball to the open man and we make shots.”

Stuczynski, the tournament’s unofficial MVP, stuck two daggers in Medina at the end of the half and third quarter. With no fear, he nailed a pullup jumper to beat the halftime buzzer and give Avon Lake a 27-23 lead. He repeated the task to close out the third quarter from the right baseline for a 36-32 Shoremen lead. Both followed unsuccessful Medina possessions designed to get the final shot of the quarter.

“Yeah, they were just normal shots,” said Stuczynski. “Time was coming down to the end. I just made the shots.”

“That hurt,” said Medina coach Jody Peters. “We probably shot a little too quick and didn’t get back on defense as we needed to. Those were big shots, no question about it.”

Smith praised his prized sophomore.

“One of the keys to our season is he’s been stepping up and getting things done for us,” Smith said of Stuczynski. “He’s averaged about 17 points a game the past eight or nine games for us. People are trying to take Ronnie Willoughby away but when they do that, Eric steps up.”

It was a well-played game from start to finish. Avon Lake had the lead most of the way but it was precarious at best.

The Shoremen built the margin to five at the end of the first quarter but Medina quickly tied it to start the second. The Bees had one-point leads twice and really appeared to have the momentum swinging their way off a seven-point run midway through the third quarter, capped by a three-point play by 6-foot-8 sophomore Kenny Kaminski that put Medina in front 30-29.

Avon Lake answered with a three-point play of its own by Brandon Muck and after breaking a 32-32 tie at the end of the third quarter, never trailed or was tied again. The biggest lead was eight points twice in the final two minutes, as Avon Lake cashed in on 6-of-7 shooting from the line, 4-for-4 by Stuczynski.

Stuczynski (14 points), Willoughby (13) and Dom Whitfield all scored at least 10 points for Avon Lake. Whitfield and Willoughby each had three assists, with guard T.J. Thompson adding a pair.

Tyler Peters finished his great Medina career with 17 points and four assists. Kaminski added 10 and four rebounds before fouling out late in the game.

“We came in here expecting to win,” said Peters. “Avon Lake played a great game. They were better than us (Saturday). I give them a lot of credit.”

Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7136 or ctsports@chroniclet.com

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