Boys basketball: State runner-up Glenville gets convincing win over Brunswick

BRUNSWICK — Unfortunately for Trey Drexler, Sean Barnett and the rest of the Brunswick boys basketball team, Glenville looked ready to return to the Division IV state championship game.The Tarblooders, who fell to Zanesville Maysville in the title game a year ago, played extremely well in all phases Saturday night while convincingly beating the talented D-I Blue Devils 74-58 in non-league play.The win improved Glenville to 10-6, but that record is extremely misleading because its losses have come against powerhouse programs St. Ignatius, Cleveland Central Catholic, Garfield Heights, Lutheran East and St. Edward. The other loss was early in the season to Cleveland Heights, which plays in the Greater Cleveland Conference with the defending champion Blue Devils, who fell to 12-3."We've just got to move on from this," Brunswick coach Joe Mackey said. "It was one of those nights. They shot the ball well and we didn't."Glenville, which like the Blue Devils played Friday night, trailed only 2-0 against Brunswick. The Tarblooders, who won the rebounding battle 35-21 and shot 30-for-54 from the field (.556) compared to the Blue Devils' 22-for-54 (.407), controlled every aspect of the game behind mistake-free point guard Theo Castro, who finished with 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting, seven rebounds and six assists."Anytime he wanted to do anything, he did," Mackey said. "We just couldn't guard him. He dictated. He did whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it."Shooting guard Arvell Nelson, who quarterbacked the Tarblooders to the D-IV state championship in the fall, had 22 points on 8-for-14 shooting, center Lorenzo Smith had 15 points on 7-for-10 and eight rebounds and power forward Gio Ramos had nine points, 11 boards and two assists."They were really good," point guard Drexler said. "They got anything they wanted. We've just got to make teams like that more uncomfortable."Drexler led the Blue Devils with 30 points on 12-for-21 shooting, but the rest of the team was 10-for-33. The senior had 22 points at halftime, but his teammates combined for just eight and were 3-for-15 from the floor, including 0-for-6 from beyond the arc, as the Blue Devils fell behind 39-30.Center Adin Evert finished with 10 points and six rebounds for Brunswick while matching Drexler with a team-high two assists. Power forward Barnett added 10 points and four boards, but he had one of those nights even great shooters have from time to time, going 4-for-17 from the floor and 0-for-11 from behind the arc.Shooting guard Drew Matus heated up to finish with eight points and five rebounds, but no one else scored for Brunswick, which never got closer than six in the third period and trailed by at least 11 for the entire fourth quarter."You can't dig yourself that big of a hole against a team like that," Mackey said. "It's something we have to address. Our traps were soft. The shooting you can't do anything about — you've just got to put the ball in the basket — but I just thought we were soft."Castro played a near-perfect floor game for the Tarblooders, while Nelson held Drexler to eight points on 4-for-10 shooting in the second half after initial defender Jahi Hobson picked up his fourth foul early in the third period.Glenville passed over, around or dribbled through almost every Brunswick trap and repeatedly got open 3-pointers or layups. When the Tarblooders missed, which wasn't often, they frequently scored off a rebound.Defensively, Glenville made Brunswick work, but the Blue Devils also missed a lot of good looks while going 7-for-31 from behind the arc (.226).Brunswick's largest run of the game was 5-0, and even that wasn't really a run. It came on a Drexler drive to end the first half and a Matus 3-pointer to start the second. Other than two free throws by Drexler and a drive by Barnett late in the second quarter, it was the only time the Blue Devils scored more than three points without the Tarblooders answering. "It was kind of an embarrassing night for our program," Mackey said. "We'll try to learn from it." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.Glenville 74, Brunswick 58GLENVILLE 18 21 18 17 — 74BRUNSWICK 11 19 16 12 — 58Glenville — Jahi Hobson 1-1-4, Gio Ramos 4-0-9, Lorenzo Smith 7-1-15, Arvell Nelson 8-3-22, Theo Castro 8-3-20, Davon Moore 2-0-4, Jayden Jordan 0-0-0, Eason Hankins 0-0-0. TOTALS: 30-8-74.Brunswick — Luke Stella 0-0-0, Sean Barnett 4-2-10, Adin Evert 3-2-10, Drew Matus 3-0-8, Trey Drexler 12-3-30, Blayke Hamilton 0-0-0, Prince Abi 0-0-0. TOTALS: 22-7-58.3-point goals — Nelson 3, Hobson, Castro, Smith, Drexler 3, Evert 2, Matus 2. Rebounds — Glenville 35 (Ramos 11), Brunswick 21 (Evert 6). Assists — Glenville 10 (Castro 6), Brunswick 8 (Drexler, Evert 2). Records — Glenville (10-6), Brunswick (12-3). Junior varsity — Brunswick 56, Glenville 45 (B: Abi 19).