D-VI District Boys Basketball: Oberlin gets off to slow start, can't keep up with No. 1 seed Kirtland

SALEM — Oberlin, the No. 10 seed, never looked comfortable in its Division VI district championship game Saturday against top-seeded Kirtland, and the Phoenix lost control late in the first quarter in a 63-43 loss. Kirtland improved to 22-3 and will face Grand Valley on Tuesday at the Canton Fieldhouse in a regional semifinal. The Phoenix (15-10) couldn't handle Kirtland's pressure defense, quickly falling behind 7-0 and forcing coach Kurt Russell to call a timeout just a minute into the game. "We struggled at the beginning, and they hit us in the mouth right out of the gate," Russell said. "They were just so much more aggressive than we were at the start of the game. "You just can't fall behind like that by seven points right away against the No. 1 seed and try to come back. You have to give Kirtland a lot of credit, they had a good game plan and stuck with it." After the timeout, Oberlin righted the ship, cutting the lead to 14-10 on three points from Carmello Williams (14 points), a 3-pointer by Jozayah Smith and four points from Korrie Freeman on a coast-to-coast layin and a pair of free throws, Freeman's free throw with 2:10 left in the first would be Oberlin's final point in the period as Kirtland went on a 14-0 run that was part of a 28-7 run to finish the first half. Lucas Renfro was at the heart of the 14-point run, knocking down two shots from behind the 3-point arc as part of a 10-point effort to go along with a pair of free throws from Jake LaVerde and a bucket by Ryan Caimi. Renfro, the Player of the Year in the Chagrin Valley Conference, finished with a game-high-tying 20 points, including four 3-pointers. Ben DiFranco also got into double digits with 12 points while pulling down nine rebounds. The Hornets run came to an end on a bucket in the paint by Drew Walter that was followed by three more points from Freeman as the Kirtland lead sat at 33-15 with 5:16 left in the first half. The Phoenix finished the first half going just 1-of-12 (8 percent) — a Santos Navarro layin at 1:32 — as Kirtland led 42-17 at the half. "We are a team that plays very hard and want to force as much pressure as we can on the other team," Hornets coach Shawn McGregor said. "We knew Oberlin was well-coached and wanted to trap all over the floor. "We knew we had to take the fight to them a little bit and force stuff so they couldn't get into their traps. I think we did a good job of that and getting into transition for some easy looks." Kirtland finished the first half hitting 16 of 30 (53 percent) shot from the floor, while the Phoenix made six of 25 (24 percent). Despite the big deficit, Oberlin came out in the second half and looked more like the team that held eight of the last 10 opponents under 50 points. It didn't allow the Hornets to get a field goal for nearly four minutes of the third. The Phoenix opened the second half by getting a bucket from Walter and four more points from Freeman, who finished with 13. "The coaches got after us at halftime, like they always do, to go out there and play our game," Freeman said. "Even though we had that rough first half, we got after it and it felt good to put together a great eight minutes of play even if this is going to be our last game." Contact James Brady at jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Kirtland 63, Oberlin 43 OBERLIN (43): Rylee Ables 0-0-0, Korrie Freeman 4-5-13, Jozayah Smith 3-0-7, Carmello Williams 5-1-14, A'son Bell 0-0-0, Drew Walter 2-0-4, Santos Navarro 2-0-5, Julean Page 0-0-0. Totals 16-6-43. KIRTLAND (63): Daniel Shefer 2-0-5, Jake LaVerde 3-2-8, Ryan Caimi 2-0-5, Ben DiFranco 4-4-12, Aj Runyan 2-0-5, Sammy Ridgeway 0-0-0, Nick Nead 0-0-0, Lucas Renfro 6-4-20, Jay'Veion Ware 0-2-2, Ryan Green 0-0-0, Mike Dumstorff 3-0-6. Totals 22-12-63. Oberlin&emsp;10&emsp;7&emsp;16&emsp;10&emsp;—&emsp;43 Kirtland&emsp;23&emsp;19&emsp;9&emsp;12&emsp;—&emsp;63 Three-point goals: Oberlin 5-19 (32 percent, Williams 3, Smith, Navarro), Kirtland 7-11 (64 percent, Renfro 4, Shafer, Caimi, Runyan). Field goals: Oberlin 19-51 (37 percent); Kirtland 22-46 (48 percent). Free throws: Oberlin 5-10 (50 percent); Kirtland 10-21 (48 percent). Rebounds: Oberlin 30, Kirtland 37. Turnovers: Oberlin 10, Kirtland 9. Team fouls: Oberlin 17, Kirtland 14.