'We're still going': Stow survives Jackson, wins OHSAA boys basketball district final

ALLIANCE — From last year to now, there seems to be a natural progression going on with the Stow boys basketball team.

Well, the Bulldogs' upward trajectory ran into a purple wall Saturday afternoon at Alliance High School. Thanks to Reece Raymond-Smith and Nick Timberlake, Stow continues on by the slimmest of margins.

Timberlake hit three massive 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter to keep Stow in the game, and Raymond-Smith's driving bucket with eight seconds left proved to be the difference in a 38-37 win against Jackson in the Division I, Northeast 2 district final.

When Jackson's desperation corner 3 from James Bossart was partially blocked by AJ Pestello in the final seconds, this physical, defensive slugfest was over. The Bulldogs erupted in celebration of their first district championship since 2011.

"'Grind' is a perfect word for it," Stow head coach Dave Close said. "You've got to find a way to survive."

The Bulldogs (24-2) survived, and now they advance to a 7 p.m. regional semifinal on Wednesday at Kent State University against Walsh Jesuit — a 49-43 winner vs. Brush in the Northeast 3 district final at Euclid.

Stow was a somewhat young team last year that got hot and advanced to a district final it wasn't quite ready for, losing to Green 45-32 in Alliance.

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This year, the Bulldogs played like an experienced, upper-echelon team all season, gaining a number of quality wins (Jackson in the season opener, St. Vincent-St. Mary, Brecksville and next week's opponent Walsh just to name a handful) and earning the Northeast East's No. 1 seed.

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"All six of our main rotation guys (this year) played that night," Close said of last year's district final loss. "They stayed hungry. They didn't come back and rest on any laurels. ... We had some big wins during the year and they never got cocky, never stopped working to get better."

No. 9 seed Jackson (19-7) made this step as difficult as possible.

The biggest point differential all night was Stow's 5-0 lead at the start. Playing inspired basketball with head coach Tim Debevec missing his second straight game because of the hospitalization of his daughter, the Polar Bears led for most of the second half.

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Raymond-Smith, a 6-foot-6 junior, displayed the resilence needed to gut out a district final such as this one.

After scoring one field goal all night, he notched the two biggest buckets of the game in the final minutes. He scored on a short jumper with 2:15 left to cut Stow's deficit to 37-36.

Close then called his number on the game-winner, clearing out the right side for him to drive.

"With that screen from AJ, I had a clear path to the hoop," Raymond-Smith said. "I just had to get around Owen (Woolbert) and thankfully it went in.

"Now we're still going."

Raymond-Smith finished with eight points and seven rebounds. Pestello, a 6-6 senior, scored 10 points, including seven in the third quarter.

Timberlake's 12 points came on four 3-pointers. Three of them accounted for Stow's first three buckets of the fourth quarter, giving it a brief 33-31 lead with 4:47 left.

Saturday's final minutes will stick with Jackson for a while.

After going up 37-34 with 2:34 left thanks to four straight free-throw makes from Kyle Monterrubio, Jackson's next three possessions were a somewhat ill-advised shot and two straight turnovers.

The Polar Bears hadn't committed a turnover all second half until the back-to-back miscues.

"Against a really good Stow team that can shoot it, pound it inside, has a quick guard (Titus Baskerville IV), to hold them to 38 points, our guys played their butts off," said assistant coach Jon Perdue, who has led the team with Debevec out. "I just hurt for them. It just kind of slipped through our hands. One loose ball. One more rebound. One more bucket. We're right there."

The sophomore Monterrubio scored 12 points to go with four rebounds for the Polar Bears, who won a share of the Federal League title with Green and was playing in its third straight district final. Woolbert, a 6-7 senior, was a major defensive presence at the rim all afternoon while totaling 10 points and seven rebounds. Bossart, a 6-4 senior, added seven points and five rebounds.

Debevec spoke with his team before and after the game via FaceTime.

"We talked about that there are things bigger than basketball," Perdue said. "But this meant a lot.

"We preach family in our program for the last 20 years plus. And as a family we wanted to come together and do it for Coach, do it for each other. I thought they honored Coach the right way by how hard we played, the way we played. It just hurts to see that they were so close."

Reach Josh at josh.weir@cantonrep.com 

On Twitter: @jweirREP 

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stow beats Jackson for OHSAA boys basketball district title