Boys Basketball: Brookside outlasts Columbia, stays perfect in LCL

COLUMBIA STATION — For three quarters, Columbia had league-leading Brookside on the ropes, but the Cardinals slowly pulled away in the fourth for a 66-59 Lorain County League victory Friday night. Brookside improved to 10-2 overall, 9-0 in the LCL. The tough-luck Raiders fell to 7-5, 4-5. "Give Columbia a lot of credit, the way they defend and jam everything up and get out to our shooters," Cardinals coach Larry Babics said. "We knew coming here that it was going to be a dogfight. Give our kids some credit, we did enough in the end." The Cards knew immediately they were in for a fight as Columbia scored the first seven points on four quick ones from Ambrose Beach, who finished with 16, and a 3-pointer by Dylan Fisher, who scored a team-high 21 points. The Cardinals can score in bunches and did just that by scoring the next eight as Zeke Lind and Mason Waechter hit 3-pointers to set up a back-and-forth affair through the first 24 minutes. Waechter was just getting started, as he scored a game-high 25 points to go with 15 by Lind. Midway through the second, a Beach three tied things at 16, but Brookside was able to slow down the Raiders just enough to finish the half up 30-24 thanks to four points from Ethan Blythe (nine points), a 3-pointers by Noah Muniz and seven points from Waechter, who hit a 3-pointer with five ticks left on the clock. The third was a mad scramble as both teams lit up the scoreboard. Columbia doubled its first-half total by nailing five of eights shots from behind the arc. Fisher hit three, and Jack Washburn and Beach added one each. The Raiders needed every point to help offset the six scored by both Waechter and Lind as the teams went to the fourth deadlocked at 48. The Raiders never led in the fourth, but through the first six minutes, they stayed within one possession. Washburn powered through contact in the paint on a layin to cut the Brookside lead to 57-54 with 1:59 left in the game. The Columbia bench was not happy with the no-call and eventually a technical foul was called. The Cardinals took advantage as Waechter hit two free throws and Lind hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to 62-54. "This was huge, we expect a lot, this was a good team (Columbia) and we knew that coming in," said Waechter, who pulled down a season-high 19 rebounds. "We really started slow but were able to pick it up in the second half. "We have big players and Noah and Zeke had big threes for us in the fourth quarter. That just pulled us away and that's how we stretched it out." After draining threes in the third, Columbia just couldn't hit in the fourth, missing all seven of its attempts. "This was really a one-possession game for most of the third and fourth quarter," Raiders coach Josh Scharf said. "We just couldn't make that one more shot to tighten it up on them a little bit. (Brookside) made shots when they needed to or got offensive rebounds and kicked it out for at least four or five second-chance threes." Contact James Brady at jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. BROOKSIDE 66, COLUMBIA 59 BROOKSIDE (66): Alex Arra 1-2-4, Ethan Blythe 4-1-9, Mason Waechter 10-3-25, Jake Holman 0-0-0, Danny Fries 2-0-5, Zeke Lind 5-1-15, Noah Muniz 2-2-8. Totals 24-9-66. COLUMBIA (59): Jack Washburn 4-1-10, Logan Menge 1-1-3, Dylan Fisher 8-1-21, Graham Ross 1-0-2, Ambrose Beach 6-2-16, Dylan Sloan 0-0-0, Ryan Smith 1-0-2, Carter Hess 2-0-5. Totals 23-5-59. Brookside&emsp;12&emsp;18&emsp;18&emsp;18&emsp;—&emsp;66 Columbia&emsp;11&emsp;13&emsp;24&emsp;11&emsp;—&emsp;59 Three-point goals: Brookside 9-32 (28 percent, Lind 4, Muniz 2, Waechter 2, Fries), Columbia 8-30 (27 percent, Fisher 4, Beach 2, Washburn, Hess). Field goals: Brookside 24-59 (41 percent); Columbia 23-62 (37 percent). Free throws: Brookside 9-17 (53 percent); Columbia 5-7 (71 percent). Rebounds: Brookside 48, Columbia 33. Turnovers: Brookside 9, Columbia 4. Junior varsity: Brookside, 44-42.