Boys basketball: Brunswick caps off undefeated season with win over Shaker Heights

The Brunswick boys basketball team dug deep into the archives to secure what is believed to be the first undefeated league season in school history.With four-year starter and reigning Gazette MVP Trey Drexler unavailable after taking a hard foul at Euclid last week, the Blue Devils played at a slow pace, shared the ball and were stout defensively from start to finish Friday to eventually pull away from host Shaker Heights 46-37 in their Greater Cleveland Conference finale.While standings from the 1920s and the 1945-46 season of the Medina County League are unavailable, strong evidence exists that the GCC champion Blue Devils (19-3, 14-0) had never finished undefeated in league action. They had one loss in 1934-35 (MCL), 1938-39 (MCL Group 1 Division), 1965-66 (Chippewa Conference) and 2024-25 (GCC), accounting for the program's first four championships."It's just been a special year," said coach Joe Mackey, whose team also set a record for regular-season victories. "None of that matters now, but I told the guys we've got a couple days to look back and really celebrate what we've accomplished this season. To go undefeated in a league that is difficult night in and night out, it's just special. I'm real proud of our guys."Now everyone is 0-0 and we need to get back to the drawing board, get healthy and try to win that first tournament game." Drexler was held out for precautionary reasons and is expected to play when the tournament begins as early as next Friday, depending on what line on the brackets Mackey decides to choose Sunday at the draw. The senior is 89 points from breaking the county career scoring record of 1,842 set by Highland's Rob Wininger from 1989-93 and is averaging 26.5 this season.Freshman Blayke Hamilton slid into the starting lineup against the Raiders (8-13, 3-10) and sophomore Prince Abi got extended minutes as the sixth man. Brunswick, which hasn't gone much past seven players in its rotation for a few seasons, led only 21-20 after an ugly first half but took control with a 15-7 third quarter.The Blue Devils then got a big 3-pointer in the fourth from Hamilton to maintain the lead and expertly churned clock to prevent Shaker Heights from even considering it had a chance to come back."Blayke Hamilton stepped up and had some huge buckets in the second half," Mackey said. "That's a luxury for us."Sean Barnett missed nine of his first 12 shots from the field but adjusted by largely working inside the 3-point arc in the second half en route to 15 points, including six straight in the pivotal third quarter, a game-high 10 rebounds and three assists. Drew Matus shared point duties with center Adin Evert and added 12 points, Hamilton finished with 10 and Evert posted nine, five rebounds and three blocks.Luke Stella didn't score but had a game-high five assists and four rebounds. Abi didn't score, either, but had two assists and a steal in the first half.After a 5-for-14 first quarter, Brunswick had shooting totals of 4-for-9, 5-for-7 and 4-for-7 while finishing with 12 assists on 18 field goals. The Blue Devils played a style similar to the mid-to-late 2000s, when they had four straight seasons of allowing fewer than 50 points per game."It kind of resembled a tournament game," Mackey said. "It was back and forth, low scoring, both teams having difficulties at the offensive end and playing well at the defensive end. I told the guys at halftime the first team to go out and make a run would win, and we did that in the third quarter." Shaker Heights, which advanced to the Division I regional finals despite a 7-15 regular-season record last season, hung around behind forwards Jacire Eaddy and Dillon Slaughter in the first half. Eaddy soon got into foul trouble, however, and Evert, with some help from Barnett, made Slaughter a non-factor in the deciding second half.The Raiders' top scorer was guard Chris Cunningham, who had 10 points off the bench. "For a team that's not really deep, that's hard to do when you don't have (Drexler) and you don't have (Matus) for three of those games," Mackey said of going undefeated in league play. "It' a special group of young men. They're a pleasure to be around day in and day out." Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.Brunswick 46, Shaker Heights 37BRUNSWICK 13 8 15 10 — 46SHAKER HEIGHTS 10 10 7 10 — 37Brunswick — Luke Stella 0-0-0, Sean Barnett 6-3-15, Adin Evert 3-1-9, Blayke Hamilton 4-0-10, Drew Matus 5-0-12, Prince Abi 0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-4-46.Shaker Heights — Jacie Eaddy 3-2-8, Dillon Slaughter 2-2-7, Max Resnick 0-0-0, Ezra Epstein 1-0-3, Kevin Lowry 1-1-3, Chris Cunningham 5-0-10, Kingston Seals 2-0-4, Bryce Twymon 1-0-2. TOTALS: 15-5-37.3-point goals — Evert 2, Hamilton 2, Matus 2, Slaughter, Epstein. Rebounds — Brunswick 26 (Barnett 10), Shaker Heights 16 (Slaughter, Eaddy 4). Assists — Brunswick 12 (Stella 5), Shaker Heights 3 (Epstein 2). Records — Brunswick (19-3, 14-0), Shaker Heights (8-13, 3-10).