Boys basketball: Middies enjoy playing on Cavs' home court, just not how they played on Cavs' home court in loss to Mayfield

CLEVELAND — Midview got to experience the roar of the crowd and the unique feeling of playing on the same court as its NBA heroes when it traveled to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday for a non-league game against Mayfield. The only thing eluding the Middies was the thrill of victory as the Wildcats pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 64-50 win. Midview's Aden Gregory hit a 3-pointer with 7:28 to pull the Middies within one at 44-43, but Mayfield responded by going on a 17-4 run to put the game out of reach. "The experience of being here today was surreal, we're just disappointed we couldn't get the win on the court," said Gregory, who tied Nyco Vidal for the team lead in scoring with 13 points. "Being able to have fans here today changed up the atmosphere a little bit. You could definitely hear the cheering and feel them getting into the game." Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is allowed to have as many as 1,900 fans for basketball games and each team playing Saturday was able to purchase over 200 tickets for the game. Vidal had a big first half for the Middies (4-6), scoring all of his points in the opening 16 minutes, including a 3-pointer with 5:44 to play in the second quarter that gave Midview its largest lead of the game at 25-21. Tyler Dawson, who added 12 points for the Middies, made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end the of the first quarter that cut the Mayfield lead to 19-15. Alex Page led Mayfield (4-8) with a game-high 17 points off the bench, while Hayden Nahra added 14. Page scored 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, going 7-for-8 from the free throw line. "We lost our footing (in the fourth quarter), we lost how we play basketball," Vidal said. "We were walking around the court, we weren't trying to get rebounds, we were looking for the first shot instead of the best shot and that's not how we play basketball. We need to improve on our heart and come into every game ready to work hard. Every single game we played this year we've came out soft. We have to start coming out strong." "We took bad shots and we tried to force things," Midview coach Jim Brabenec said. "We were doing it all game but it finally caught up in the end and they were able to make a big run. We had three games a week almost all year so we should be used to it but today, unfortunately, we came out like we weren't ready. I'll take the blame for that one." Still, the chance to play in an NBA arena somewhat softened the blow of losing. "This is great being able to down here," Vidal said. "For kids, this is our dream, this is something everybody wants to do, to play on an NBA court. It's feels incredible to get that opportunity." "It's a cool experience to be able to play here," Brabanec said. "We hoped we could get some of our students and our community members down here that haven't been able to see our guys play this year to come out and be able to see a game." Contact Todd Shapiro at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Mayfield 64, Midview 50 Mayfield (64): Donovan Coffey 3-0-6, Gerald Harris 3-0-8, Alex Page 3-11-17, Noah Adams 1-0-2, Giovanni DiTomaso 4-2-10, Tim Steffens 3-1-7, Hayden Nahra 6-2-14. Totals 23-16-64 Midview (50): Bryce Newton 2-0-5, Nyco Vidal 5-0-13, Tyler Dawson 4-2-12, Aden Gregory 5-1-13, Ryan Runser 1-2-4, Marc Reed 0-1-1, Ben DeSimone 1-0-2. Totals 18-6-50. Mayfield &emsp;&emsp;19 14 11 20 — 64 Midview &emsp;&emsp;15 15 10 10 — 50 Three-point goals: Mayfield (Harris 2), Midview (Vidal 3, Dawson 2, Gregory 2, Newton). Field goals: Mayfield 23-59 (40 percent), Midview 18-46 (29 percent). Free throws: Mayfield 16-22 (57 percent), Midview 6-13 (67 percent). Rebounds: Mayfield 41, Midview 30. Turnovers: Mayfield 11, Midview 18. Total fouls: Mayfield 14, Midview 12.