Streetsboro soars past Ravenna in the third quarter

STREETSBORO — They made only one 3-point field goal all night, did not convert a free throw and turned the ball over 18 times.

And they still won by 17 points.

Friday night at home against Ravenna, Streetsboro did not do a lot of things well, but what it did do was play a great third quarter and that propelled the Rockets past the Ravens 57-40 in a Metro Athletic Conference tilt.

The victory boosted the Rockets' winning streak to six while also keeping them atop the division standings with a 7-1 mark. With Norton's win over Woodridge Friday, the Panthers were able to keep pace with Streetsboro in the loss column at 5-1. The Bulldogs dropped to third at 5-2.

After building a 13-point lead late in the first half, Streetsboro (8-2, 7-1 MAC) watched as Ravenna closed the gap to eight points at the half (31-23), and then six following Emmanuel Miller's bucket to open the second half.

That's when the Rockets began to soar — literally and figuratively — to a decisive 18-4 quarter-ending run to establish complete control of the game.

"We made a couple little adjustments at halftime but mainly it was just a message to play harder on defense," said Rockets coach Nick Marcini.

Senior forward Bryce Vecchio got things started with a dunk and then fed fellow senior Devin Reese with a half-court pass that the 6-foot-3 Reese laid in to make it 35-25 at the 5:48 mark.

Ravenna coach Marlon Jones called timeout to try to stem the tide, but the Rockets were only beginning.

Brevyn Nobles, who scored eight points, drove to the hole to make it a 6-0 run before Vecchio hit Reese with a back-door pass that Reese converted off the glass to make it 39-25.

Eathan Cobbin (10 points) got the Ravens (4-6, 3-5) back on the board with a score, but Reese, who led everyone with 23 points, answered with a put-back and junior guard Colby Benjamin tacked on a layup to expand the gap to 43-27.

Senior forward Sam Abbuhl, who supplied 12 points and like Nobles complemented Reese and Vecchio (10 points) very well all game, popped in a shot to make it 45-27. The Ravens' Pavel Henderson countered with a nifty reverse flip off the glass, but that would pale in comparison to what Reese did to finish off the frame.

First, similar to a play earlier in the quarter, Reese got the ball in the open court and rose to the rim. This time he elevated just a little extra to allow him to slam it home. That was just the appetizer.

Shortly thereafter, with the clock winding down, Benjamin made eye contact with Reese standing in the near corner close to the Streetsboro bench. Reese made a bee-line to the hoop, jumped as high as he could, caught Benjamin's lob and threw it down with a ferocity that sent the home fans into a frenzy.

"The second half, we got some easy buckets and we were able to handle the zone," said Marcini. "And of course got the big play toward the end of the quarter that got the energy (going). We are not a great half-court offensive team. We want to be able to get stops and get out and go."

Reese's final hoop opened the fourth quarter and provided the Rockets with their biggest lead of the night. The Ravens outscored them 11-6 the rest of the way during a turnover-filled period.

Right from the opening tip, the Ravens came out energized and reeled off seven straight points to take a 7-2 edge. However, Reese got cooking late in the stanza, scoring the final seven points to push the Rockets ahead 17-12 after eight minutes.

"We were giving the ball away the whole first half, were lazy on defense ... you get in the flow of things, it is Friday night, I don't think we were ready to go mentally to go out there and compete," said Marcini of his team's early malaise. "To Ravenna's credit, they came out and played hard, they were getting to the bucket, getting downhill, taking advantage of us being lazy on defense."

Streetsboro, which shot 1-of-15 from 3-ball range and went 0-for-4 from the foul line, controlled the boards (44-25) and continued to score inside throughout the game.

"I thought we did a decent job rebounding. I thought (we) got some easy (buckets) on the offensive side," said Marcini.

Abbuhl's effort underneath resulted in eight points for the 6-4 forward and sparked the Rockets to a 31-18 lead.

But Henderson (12 points) and Miller (11 points), who turned in very solid efforts for the Ravens, combined for the final five points of the half to get the deficit to single digits at the intermission.

Ravenna struggled shooting -- from everywhere on the court. The Ravens were 18-of-61 (29.5%) for the game and 0-of-9 from beyond the arc.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Streetsboro soars past Ravenna in the third quarter