by This content is brought to you by – https://keeonsports.com/sponsors/
CANTON, Ohio– Cornerstone Christian (22-5) hung with Richmond Heights for the first half, then the Spartans caught fire behind the arc, ultimately leading them to a 93-52 convincing win during the Division IV region 13 regional semifinal Tuesday night.
Richmond Height (26-0) now extends their winning streak to 46 games and at this rate, it doesn’t seem like ending soon as they’ve beaten their opponents by an average of more than 40 points per game throughout the playoffs.
“We just wanted to make things tough on them,” Spartan’s head coach Quentin Rogers said after the win. “(The defense) did a real good job staying in front of them because we know they like to get up and down and get shots up.”
The first half was a tale of two quarters for the Patriots. After scoring just eight points in the game’s opening eight minutes and looking like the Spartans were going to run away with the game early on, coach Babe Kwasniak’s group fought and proved themselves.
It started with their transition offense. They were able to play into the Spartans’ game plan a little bit, creating offense from defense. A 10-point lead with just under four minutes left swiftly started to dwindle, with the Patriots even cutting the lead down to four points with under two minutes left.
Players like Quinn Kwasniak, DJ Niles and Deshaun Vaden were imperative down the stretch, testing their length inside the paint with Kwasniak shooting the ball with ease.
DJ Niles gets the bucket to go for @CCA_HOOPS and at halftime, Richmond Heights leads 37-31.
The Patriots are hanging in there! @SportsKee1 pic.twitter.com/dhi1zDNLhy— Michael Trivisonno (@MichaelTriv_) March 8, 2023
The Spartans took a 37-31 halftime lead and that seemed like the beginning of the end for the Patriots as the halftime message was simple for Rogers and his team; stick to the game plan and be prepared.
“We got it going in the third quarter,” Rogers said. “Stick to the game plan and keep moving the ball, don’t let it stick…I think they started us with 28 (turnovers).”
Rogers tries to implement that to his team, that it starts on the defensive side of the ball and that’s what started to transpire in the third quarter with his team opening up the first five minutes on a 25-6 run.
“We just try to teach them that our defense leads to offense, I thought we had better shots in the first half, especially in the second quarter and we got it going in the third quarter…It’s hard keeping them locked in and focused but they do a good job of doing that.”
As a team, Richmond Heights connected on six 3-pointers and scored 38 points in the third quarter to ultimately put the game away as the fourth quarter started with a 32-point Spartan lead.
“It was all about preparation,” Richmond Heights junior guard Jeremy Wilson said about taking command of the game in the second half, scoring a game-high 26 points during the win. “Coach Q told us to lock in from our defensive drills and we just locked in.”
For the Patriots, Quinn Kwasniak had a team-high 20 points during the loss along with Carter Armstrong helping pace the offense with 16 points.
For the Spartans, three players scored at least 20 points (26 from Wilson, 22 from Demarris Winters and 20 from Dorian Jones) along with 15 points from Hosea Steele.
The Patriots made it to the regional stage for the first time since 2018 and Kwasniak ends his sophomore season knocking down an eye-popping 125 3-pointers during the season.
As for the undefeated Spartans, they’ll once again be favorites Friday night as they will take on Dalton for a shot to go down to the state semifinal next week in Dayton.
