by MEDINA, Ohio– Garfield Heights used a third quarter scoring surge to ultimately take down Hoban, 58-45 in the Division III, Region 9 Championship game, securing a spot in the state semifinals next week at a site yet to be determined.
Junior guard and Mr. Basketball finalist Marcus Johnson paced the team with a game-high 26 points. He led the team offensively, but it was players like Braylin Sullivan, Nasir Hines and Ari Jones that did the dirty work to stop the bleeding early on, specially making things difficult for 6-foot-8 big man Sam Greer for the Knights.
“When you win a game like this, it’s a complete team effort,” Johnson said. “And you saw a complete team win today.”
Points came at a premium on Friday night. Kenny Scott and Sam Greer headlined a first quarter where Hoban led for most of it. It wasn’t necessarily a big lead, but the Knights were able to get ahead early to keep Marcus Johnson from making an early impact.
In fact, Scott and Greer combined to score all 14 first quarter points for the Knights as they held a 14-13 lead after the first eight minutes of the game. From there, Johnson started to find a rhythm offensively. He was able to knock down a couple of 3-pointers to give his team a spark closing out the first half.
Whenever the Knights saw Greer with a solid post position near the rim, he was found and often got a bucket due to his superior size and strength. Through it all, the Knights held a 26-25 lead heading into halftime.
The difference maker Friday night was the third quarter. A quarter where Johnson’s team opened up on an 8-0 run. A quarter where they outscored the Knights 16-8 and a quarter where all the momentum completely shifted, and the Bulldogs fed off that.
“We had guys make shots, we had guys get several blocks…everything has to go right for you to get past and go to a final four,” Johnson said with a smile on his face.
Sullivan scored seven points for the Bulldogs during the win, with all seven coming in the third quarter, nearly outscoring the Knights by himself. Whenever Marcus Johnson got loose in transition, that seemed to open up the floor for guys like Sullivan to knock down open shots near the wing.
“DJ stepped up, Naz stepped up, everybody stepped up,” Marcus Johnson said. “Shout out to the coaches for doing a good job on the scouting report and we got the win.”
Scott was limited to just three second-half points with Greer scoring eight. For the game, Greer paced the Knights with 18 points followed with Scott’s 15 points. Just four players scored for the Knights during the loss.
The Bulldogs pushed their lead to double digits midway through the third quarter and from there, the Knights would get within six points just once. They failed to capitalize on the glass, with the Bulldogs scoring on a slew of second-chance opportunities and that was one of the many differences in the second half to put the game out of reach for the Knights.
For head coach Sonny Johnson, it’s all about believing in one another and staying the course.
“At the end of the day that shows me one thing, if you believe in your kids, they can come through,” he shared.
