Boys basketball: Buckeye's title hopes dashed with loss to Lakewood

YORK TWP. — Just when it looked like the Buckeye boys basketball team was going to climb to the peak Tuesday night, the Bucks stumbled and rolled all the way back to the base of the mountain.Lakewood clinched at least a share of the Cleveland West Conference with a 59-36 victory.Buckeye started slow, forcing the team to battle back. Just when the Bucks did that, the bottom fell out and the Rangers closed the game on a 24-5 run over the final 9:36.It was the fourth loss in a row for Buckeye (11-10, 8-5), which was eliminated from CWC contention on Saturday when Westlake (14-8, 11-3) finished league play with a 68-48 win over Normandy.Lakewood (12-8, 11-2) can earn sole possession of first place with a win against North Olmsted (0-19, 0-11) on Thursday.The 36 points scored by the Bucks were a season low by 12."We just didn't play good at all, in every aspect of the game," senior Turner Dolata said. "We didn't shoot it well. We didn't rebound well. We didn't necessarily play that hard. We turned the ball over."We need to learn to play through mistakes and keep going without hanging our heads. We didn't do that at all and they took advantage of it."Dolata returned from a two-game absence but struggled to find a rhythm against Lakewood's aggressive defense. He tallied four points, three rebounds and a team-high three assists after scoring the team's first points on two free throws less than 30 seconds into the game for a 2-0."It's always good to play," Dolata said. "Being out for a little while, it was nice to get back out on the court. It wasn't a good performance by me, or anyone, honestly. We just have to forget it and move along to have good practices the rest of the week."The Bucks never led after Logan Brown split free throws for a 3-2 advantage. The Rangers closed the quarter on a 12-2 run to go up 14-5. Center Riley Verderber (12 points, 10 rebounds, assist) was a force with 10 of the points."They play really good defense," Buckeye shooting guard Austin Hyre said. "They've held most teams in the 40s. We've never played that type of a zone before and they did a really good job at it."Hyre scored a game-high 16 points with two rebounds and for a while looked like he could a struggling offense back into the game. He scored nine of his team's points in an 11-3 second-quarter run that cut the deficit to 19-16.He then scored his final seven points in a 10-6 run through the middle of the third quarter, with the deficit shrinking to 35-31 when Derek Snyderburn (3 points, 3 rebounds) split free throws with 1:36 left in the period."We just made shots," Hyre said of the middle quarters. "We found the open guy and made shots."The Rangers close the third on a 10-0 run when Rory Chanter (9 points, team-high 3 assists) sank two free throws after Dolata was hit with a technical for arguing a call.That run was part of the larger 24-5 spree to finish the game."They were pressuring us, turning us over and getting easy buckets," Dolata said. "We didn't handle it well at all. They took advantage of it and went on a big run to close the game."Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.Lakewood 59, Buckeye 36LAKEWOOD 14 10 17 18 — 59BUCKEYE 5 14 12 5 — 36Lakewood — Liam McGann 1-0-2, LaMarien Wilson 4-2-10, Riley Vergerber 4-4-12, Harper Carroll 4-2-11, Rory Chanter 2-5-9, Kavontah Swain 2-2-6, Nathan Bruwer 2-0-6, Jake Jablonowski 0-0-0, Mekhi Williams 0-0-0, Nathaniel Gage 0-0-0, Otto Wilhelmy 1-0-3, Ben Charkosky 0-0-0, Massimo Ziemann 0-0-0, Jackson Comer 0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-15-59.Buckeye — Jacob Snyderburn 1-0-3, Derek Snyderburn 1-1-3, Turner Dolata 1-2-4, Austin Hyre 4-6-16, Logan Brown 0-1-1, Zach Stough 1-4-6, Mason Dolata 1-1-3, Avery Conde 0-0-0, Cameron Stachewicz 0-0-0, Ethan Kaetzel 0-0-0, Devin Shrader 0-0-0. TOTALS: 9-15-36.3-point goals — Bruwer 2, Carroll, Wilhelmy, Hyre 2, J. Snyderburn. Rebounds — Lakewood 23 (Verderber 10), Buckeye 19 (J. Snyderburn 5). Assists — Lakewood 12 (Chanter 3), Buckeye 6 (T. Dolata 3). Records — Lakewood (12-8, 11-2), Buckeye (11-10, 8-5). Junior varsity — Lakewood 52, Buckeye 47 (B: Cameron Stachewicz 16).