Recordpub.com - Roosevelt upsets No. 1 seed Twinsburg to advance to district final

By Eric Clutter

Record-Courier correspondent

COPLEY — When the seeds were revealed for the Copley Division I District Tournament a few weeks back, Kent Roosevelt, despite its district runner-up status a year ago and having 12 wins at the time of the drawing, was slotted No. 7.

But just as regular-season records are thrown out come postseason time, you may want to do the same with a school’s placement, especially at Copley which always seems to feature a balanced field.

The Rough Riders drove home that point Thursday night, getting off to a great start and then holding on during a tense final three minutes to post a 49-46 district semifinal victory over the No. 1-seeded Twinsburg Tigers.

“It’s just a lack of respect and we’re here to claim some respect for the PTC,” said Roosevelt coach Cameron Black.

Senior Cameron Black II hit four free throws in the final minute, including a pair with 17.2 seconds on the clock that gave the Rough Riders a 49-46 lead.

Twinsburg (18-4) had two chances to tie the game in the final seconds, but Josh Edmondson (19 points) misfired from in front of his team’s bench, and then Bryan Sims’ last-second attempt from beyond the left arc made it to the front of the rim and bounded away.

For the second straight year, Roosevelt — now 17-6 overall and winners of six of its last seven postseason games — has advanced to the district title game. After losing to Barberton by one point to fall just short of a regional berth in 2009, the Rough Riders will try again Saturday night at 7 p.m. against second-seeded Akron East, which defeated Green 62-60 on Wednesday night.

“Let’s go, baby. Let’s ride, let’s ride,” said a very happy Black. “A lot of people had us down. We didn’t win our league this year. Maybe right now that will give our league some respect — we are a good team and good teams come out of the PTC.

“We are back again without our big guns from last year, but we still have a group of kids that are willing to play.”

Having eliminated Hudson by two points and then Stow by one in overtime, the Rough Riders shot out of the gate and opened an 18-6 lead after one quarter against the Tigers. The keys were 14 combined points from Black II and Marcus Wright and error-free basketball that produced zero turnovers.

“It is a different mind-set than what we had, and it is winning games already,” said Black of his team’s tough, stubborn play on the defensive end of the floor that has resulted in limiting three tournament opponents to only 44 points a game. “We changed up a couple things in the last two ball games defensively to give us an edge.

“The defense is our best offense. We get out defensively, cause some problems and open things for us offensively.”

Tigers coach Bob Pacsi emphasized the importance of the game’s first eight minutes as being crucial to the outcome.

“The difference was they got off to the start we were hoping to get,” he said. “In essence, they got off to a great start. We were unsure, uneasy.”

Twinsburg got it going in the second stanza and pulled to within four points late in the half before settling for a six-point deficit (28-22) at the half.

The Tigers continued to hang around and got to within two points at 33-31. Black II and Wright each picked up their third foul and had to sit for the first two minutes of the fourth quarter with Roosevelt clinging to a 38-32 advantage.

The two Roosevelt big men re-entered the contest at the 6:05 mark of the final frame, and Wright contributed six points to expand the Roosevelt margin to 45-36 with just over three minutes to play.

“Those are our big guns and we need our big guns down the stretch,” said Black of putting his two front-liners back in the game with Roosevelt nursing a five-point lead. “They need to go out in the right fashion. Win or lose, they need to be on the floor.”

However, Edmondson fired in a 3 to reduce the gap to six, and the Tigers then cashed a couple of Roosevelt miscues into four points — the last two via a slam from 6-foot-8 Jonathan Harris with 1:20 remaining.

“There is a reason why they are the No. 1 seed,” said Black, “because they have the ability to put points on the board, and they have a lot of athletes that can cause trouble for you. Our kids stayed focus though.”

Black II stopped the spurt with two free tosses with exactly one minute to go, but Edmondson’s second 3 — off the glass — made it a one-point nail-biter with 37 seconds to go.

Black II was eventually fouled and sent to the line, where the Bowling Green recruit calmly popped in two shots to force Twinsburg into 3-point mode.

“We showed we could play with the big boys tonight,” said Black II. “It is a great thing being a part of it.”

Roosevelt’s 6-9 center had a dominating performance with 17 points, 13 rebounds, eight blocks and four assists. He also did a solid defensive effort on Harris, holding him to 12 points — eight below his season average.

“He’s a great player and everybody helped (defensively),” said Black II. “When he got the ball, we doubled down on him to shut him down.”

“I thought Black played a terrific game; he blocked shots and altered shots,” said Pacsi. “But I’m proud of our kids. There were a lot of positives (to our season). One game shouldn’t overshadow what we did.”

Wright finished with a strong 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while reserves Zach Brett (5 points) and 6-5 junior Evan Antal (4 points) contributed big points in another grind-it-out affair for Roosevelt.