Boys Basketball: Midview toughs out ugly win over North Ridgeville

NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Luckily for Midview, ugly wins look beautiful in the standings. The Middies got 18 points from senior Bryson Hicks and relied on their physical zone defense to keep North Ridgeville's potent offense off-balance, as Midview escaped with a 49-44 win Tuesday in Southwestern Conference play. Midview (10-7, 5-6) took a 9-6 lead on a 3-pointer from David Moore midway through the opening period and never trailed again. The Middies held North Ridgeville to 14 field goals. The Rangers (8-8, 4-7) were able to get to the free throw line 16 times, making 13 of their foul shots, but were ineffective getting the ball into the basket from close range. North Ridgeville's first four field goals of the second half were all 3-pointers. The Rangers didn't make a 2-point field goal until the 4:42 mark of the fourth quarter when Charlie Steinmetz scored to cut the Middies' lead to 41-36. "If it's a pretty game, we're not gonna win. We've got to ugly it up," Midview coach Jim Brabenec said. "We have to play with toughness and grit if we're going to win these kind of games, and we were able to do that." In the first quarter, the Middies found the most success working the ball down in the post to the 6-foot-4 Hicks and 6-4 forward Steve Komar, as they took a 19-10 lead. Hicks was the game's leading scorer with 18 points and Komar had six first-quarter points but left the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury. "This was a big win for us. We made sure to emphasize rebounding, toughness and getting the ball inside," Hicks said. "There aren't a lot of teams prepared to play against a big post team. If we can pound the post, that's how we win games." After starting the season 6-6, the Middies have won four of their last five. The Rangers are headed in the opposite direction. After starting the year 4-1, North Ridgeville is just 3-6 since New Year's Day. "We just didn't compete hard enough in all facets of the game to win a tough SWC game against a rival," North Ridgeville coach Ben Chase said. "Time and time again, we've just let guys get going. We struggle to make outside shots to start the game and against a team that runs an effective zone, it's tough to score." North Ridgeville trailed at the half 23-16 after a grind-it-out second quarter in which each team was held to four points. The Middies led by as many as 12 early in third quarter, but North Ridgeville went a 10-3 run late, extending into the fourth quarter, to cut the Midview lead to three. It was as close as it got. Senior Griffin Turay scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the first half for the Rangers, who had their lowest offensive output of the season. Collin Jones had 10 points for North Ridgeville and Drew DiFranco had 10 points for the Middies. "This win shows how our team can buy into a game plan and do exactly what Coach wants us to. We were well-prepared for tonight. He definitely knows what he's talking about," DiFranco said. "We obviously could have done a lot of things better but we executed the game plan well. "We're playing more collectively as a team. As the season progresses, we're spreading the points out across the entire team and feeding the post more. Since we started doing that, we've been racking up wins. I wish we could have started the season like that." Midview, which went 4-for-12 at the free throw line, swept the season series from North Ridgeville. The Middies won on their home court 54-53. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.