by KEE On Sports Media Group covered the 2025 Battle 4 the Bay hosted by SpyReport at the Cedar Point Sports Complex on June 16th & 17th. The high school basketball summer event featured teams from across Northwest, Ohio and other select high school programs in the Northeast, Ohio area in the two-day event.
The event featured top high school junior varsity and varsity programs competing in a two-day event, with the first day featuring unique regional matchups throughout the Northwest and Ohio area. On day two, each team was featured in a “March Madness” style single-game elimination tournament where teams were placed in a bracket setting based on their day one results. The tournament featured a short 15-minute game setting giving each team the chance to test themselves in the late-game and pressured situations.
In the JV Championship bracket, we had Marion Local (Maria Stein, OH) versus Perrysburg (Perrysburg, OH). In a hard-fought game, the Perrysburg Yellow Jackets prevailed to win the Junior Varsity Championship 24 – 17.
In the Varsity bracket, the following teams made the Varsity Elite 8: Smithville, Margaretta (Castalia, OH), Western Reserve Academy, Northwest (Canal Fulton, OH), Marion Local (Maria Stein, OH), Riverside (Painesville, OH), and Hudson (Hudson, OH), and Lake (Millbury, OH).
In the Varsity semi-final matchups, we had Marion Local (Maria Stein, OH) versus Hudson (Hudson, OH) and Lake (Millbury, OH) versus Margaretta (Castalia, OH). Both semi-final games featured tight scores with the Hudson Explorers defeating Marion Local 16-13 and the Margaretta Polar Bears defeating Lake (Millbury, OH) 25 – 15. This set up a great championship game matchup between the Hudson Explorers versus the Margaretta Polar Bears.
In the championship game, Hudson jumped out to an early 8-0 lead as the Explorer executed their halfcourt offense well finishing tough inside baskets. From that point on, the Margaretta Polar Bears would clamp down defensively making scoring very difficult for Hudson as they created turnovers getting out and scoring efficiently in transition. Senior guards Judah Keller and Julian Washington for Margaretta were clicking on all cylinders for the Polar Bears as both guards made big plays grabbing and running with the momentum. The highlight of the game featured a baseline Julian Washington one-handed slam dunk that put an exclamation point on the comeback effort for the Polar Bears. Margaretta was able to defeat Hudson 31 – 17 as the Polar Bears brought the 2025 Battle for the Bay Trophy back to Castalia, OH.
Margaretta Polar Bear’s Head Coach Steve Keller had this to say about the win,
“Praise God, I’m just blessed because these guys just competed and that’s what it was this Monday and Tuesday. In the championship, offensively we played at a very high level as Judah got us going from deep shooting it well and we had a lot of guys do a lot of good things. We will just continue to work from here but hopefully, it’s a bit of a nice taste of what we want to do and how we need to work to get there.”
The Margaretta Polar Bears had a stellar 2024-25 season where they competed in many high-level showcase tournaments across Ohio including at the 2025 FlyingToTheHoop in Dayton, OH. The Margaretta Polar Bear look to keep improving as they gear up for another big season in the Sandusky Bay Conference (SBC) in 2025-26.
