Ravenna basketball snaps nine-game skid against Streetsboro
STREETSBORO — When people talk about basketball games getting decided at the buzzer, they’re usually talking about the final one.
Tuesday’s rivalry contest turned at the third-quarter buzzer.
Marcus Gibson’s buzzer-beater from the top of the arc put the Ravens in front, lighting a spark into the visiting bench and the visiting fans.
Ravenna never trailed again en route to a 44-39 win over host Streetsboro, snapping a streak of nine straight Ravens losses to the Rockets.
“We lost nine times in a row,” Ravenna senior guard Maykai O’Neal said. “It's our first time beating them. We just turned up and we got the dub.”
"Nine straight times that they beat us and we finally were able to get a win against them, which is great," coach Marlon Jones added. "Nine times is a lot. It's a lot and it shows that their program is very strong. Their program is very good. It's run right. To be able to pull off this win, it's a big win for us."
Down eight at the half, the Ravens (2-2, 2-1 Metro Athletic Conference) turned up the pressure defensively, holding the Rockets (0-3, 0-2) to 4-of-20 (20 percent) from the field after the intermission.
"Ravenna did a nice job of amping up the pressure there a little bit," Streetsboro coach Nick Marcini said. "[They] got up in us a little bit more and we didn't have a response for it."
Trailing for pretty much the entire second and third quarters, the Ravens started to turn the momentum with another 3, less than a minute before Gibson's buzzer-beater.
With 45 ticks remaining in the third, Streetsboro led 29-25, and while the Rockets had gone without a field goal for the entire quarter to that point, the Ravens hadn’t really made them pay.
Until Ravenna senior center Emmanuel Miller snagged an offensive board and kicked out to fellow senior post Mason Ross for a left-wing 3-pointer.
Streetsboro responded, with senior post Bryan Nobles scrapping out his own offensive rebound at the top of the key and powering to the hoop for a layup, but down 31-28, Ravenna took over.
With 5.3 seconds remaining in the quarter, O’Neal drew a foul on a swoop to the hoop and hit both free throws to draw within one (31-30).
Then, the Rockets threw a pass away, giving the Ravens the last shot of the third.
And Ravenna took full advantage with O’Neal, on the sideline inbound, finding Gibson for the massive 3 that caromed off the backboard.
"The play that we ran was for our shooters," Jones said. "He was able to come off that screen, get that shot up and it went in and that was a momentum change for us. It boosted our energy. It boosted our confidence."
"You could feel the momentum switch," added Ross, who led Ravenna in points (14) and rebounds (10). "The crowd really got into it a lot more."
The Ravens were going crazy at that point, but the question was whether that momentum would carry into the fourth.
It did.
A minute and change into the fourth, Ravenna senior Pavel Henderson snagged a defensive rebound and quickly heaved the ball up the court to fellow senior Justice Haven (11 points, 9 rebounds, 5-of-10 from the field) for a layup and a 36-31 advantage.
A minute and change later, O’Neal, who had all eight of his points in the second half, had a nifty slash to the basket, as he raced from the left wing to the right post.
A minute-and-a-half later, shortly after Nobles (11 points, 7 rebounds) got Streetsboro back within four with another powerful move inside, Henderson, who had five fourth-quarter points, picked out a steal and got a friendly roll off the front rim on his lefty layup for a 40-34 Ravenna lead.
“Those guys wanted it,” Jones said. “We were down at halftime, but they came out second half and they wanted it. They were hungry. They knew they had an opportunity. They knew what's at stake and they played like it.”
Down 42-36, the Rockets got within three on sophomore sharpshooter Jack Batten’s third 3-pointer of the night, but then turned it over on back-to-back potential game-tying possessions, and Henderson and Ross widened the Ravens' lead by each splitting a pair from the free-throw line.
"Jack and Charles [Ivory] and Trevor [Murray] and Jackson [Gula], they're going to just continue to grow and get better," Marcini said of his team's many sophomores. "This will be a totally different team come January, you know? So,we just got to keep our head down and keep plugging and keep getting better and take our experiences as they come and learn from the losses and hopefully get to celebrate a win one of these days."
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna basketball snaps nine-game skid against Streetsboro
