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MEDINA, Ohio– Medina was able to outscore Buchtel by nine points in the fourth quarter as their last-second comeback fell just short Saturday afternoon.
After leading for most of the game, Buchtel was able to hang on to a 78-75 win behind Chris Livingston’s team-high 29 points.
“They battle-tested us,” Buchtel head coach Rayshon Dent said. “I knew that we had to hit our free throws to close the game out and our kids were looking for that challenge.”
Leading 63-51 heading into the fourth quarter, the Griffins were in the driver’s seat for most of the game. But seniors Corey Tripp and Brandon Geschke would make the game come down to the closing seconds after scoring a combined 15 points in the fourth quarter for Medina.
The Bees opened the first four minutes of the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run following a 3-pointer from junior guard Drew Hensley. Two minutes later, Geschke was able to connect on another 3-pointer, cutting the Buchtel lead to one possession with just over one minute left in the game.
Brandon Geschke’s 3-pointer gets Medina within three, 69-66, with 1:15 left in the 4th Q. pic.twitter.com/4wVo9PJJSS
— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) February 6, 2021
With the Griffins holding a slight lead in the closing minute, Medina was forced to foul and rely on missed free throws for more opportunities to cut into the deficit.
The Griffins executed at the free-throw line.
In the fourth quarter alone, they connected on 8-of-11 free throws, eventually putting the game out of reach for Medina. Chris Livingston finished with a team-high 29 points, along with Noah Peeples and Marcell Boyce Jr. rounding out the double-digit scoring with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Senior forward Travonne Jackson battled foul trouble for Buchtel in the second half as he picked up his fourth foul with 56 seconds left in the third quarter.
With the 6-foot-6 forward on the bench to start the fourth quarter, that’s when Medina started to gain momentum and chip away at the lead.
“We had to go a little bit undersized and we went smaller and they were able to exploit that,” Dent said. “When Travonne came back in the game he managed to hit some key free throws to stop the bleeding a little bit and also making good decisions in the press breaker.”
With most of the attention geared towards five-star junior Chris Livingston, Medina head coach Chris Hassinger throught his players lost focus a little bit, creating more scoring opportunities for a myriad of other Buchtel players. For the game, the Griffins had six different players score at least five points.
“We really lacked toughness in the first half and I think we were a little bit starstruck at times, especially in the first half,” Hassinger said. “Everyone just says Chris Livingston but they have some other really good pieces and I think our guys overlooked that tonight.”
Medina opened the game on a high note, with senior guard Corey Tripp making a statement scoring six of the team’s first 10 points. He had 18 in the first half alone as Buchtel just started to make a handful of scoring runs to open the game into a double-digit deficit for the Bees throughout the second quarter.
For the game, Tripp finished with a game-high 35 points along with 15 from Geschke and six points each from Jajuan Jackson, Drew Hensley and Christian Howard.
Tripp was matched up against Livingston for most of the game, including holding him to just four points in the quarter. To be able to lead the team in scoring along with nearly pulling off a comeback win as they faced a double-digit deficit for most of the night speaks volumes to coach Hassinger about his senior leader.
“They were double-teaming Corey every possession and to be able to play defense against Livingston and go score and carry the load, it’s pretty impressive by him,” Hassinger said of Corey Tripp.
The win improves Buchtel to 11-2 on the year, as they are set to travel to Walsh Jesuit on Feb. 9. For Medina, the loss drops them to 10-5 with their next game coming Feb. 8 against Euclid.
