See a photo gallery from the game here. CLEVELAND, Ohio — Gasoline was 18 cents a gallon and a postage stamp cost 3 cents the last time a Garfield Heights basketball team reached the big- school state semifinals.
See a photo gallery from the game here.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Gasoline was 18 cents a gallon and a postage stamp cost 3 cents the last time a Garfield Heights basketball team reached the big- school state semifinals.
Times have changed and so has Garfield Heights basketball.
The Bulldogs erased 61 years of also-ran status on Saturday when they wore down a determined Mentor squad, 85-68, in the Division I boys regional finals at the Wolstein Center.
The victory sends the once-beaten Bulldogs, ranked first in the final statewide poll, to Friday's state semifinals at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus. They will play second-ranked and once-beaten Columbus Northland at 8:30 p.m. Northland, state champs in 2009, defeated Westerville South, 80-62, also on Saturday.
Garfield Heights used its best shooting night of the season -- a blistering 72.7 percent from the field -- and dominance on the backboards to stop Mentor (21-5) one game short of making a repeat trip to the final four.
Led by a scintillating first-half performance by guard Trey Lewis, solid contributions from Mike McQueen and Tony Farmer and an uncharacteristic shooting night by the Cardinals, Garfield Heights took control late in the first quarter and played its way to a stunning 17-point lead.
Lewis, a Penn State recruit, scored 26 of his game-high 32 points over the first 16 minutes by making nine of 13 field-goal attempts, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range, and six straight free throws. The only thing that stopped him was foul trouble.
"The team did a tremendous job of getting me open looks, open shots," said Lewis. "Our coaches told me before the game to be aggressive. When you feel hot, you keep going with the hot hand and our coaches told me to keep shooting."
Mentor was an uncharacteristic 10-of-20 from the field and an even more uncharacteristic 10-of-17 from the free-throw line in the first half.
Garfield Heights coach Sonny Johnson said the game plan was to get the ball inside, but Lewis changed that.
"Trey was unbelievable, and when he has a hot hand, there's no stopping him," he said.
McQueen, a 6-7, 270-pound senior who was the hero of the Bulldogs' semifinal win, scored 19 points for the second straight game and had eight rebounds. However, it was Farmer, a 6-6 sophomore, who spearheaded the Bulldogs' lopsided 36-11 performance in rebounding with a game-high 14.
Senior Cole Krizancic, an Ashland recruit and son of Mentor coach Bob Krizancic, led the Cardinals with 23 points.
Mentor trailed, 45-32, at the half but threw a scare into Garfield Heights when Lewis went to the bench with his third foul with 5:01 left in the third quarter. Krizancic scored 10 points, and Matt Solden and Jeff Foreman had six each during the period and the Cards trailed by six at quarter's end.
"I have so much faith in this team. I knew, no matter what, they would come through for me," Lewis said.
"There were times in the game where we went through adversity, but this team knows how to fight through adversity."
The Bulldogs showed they weren't going to fold and extended their lead to 10 to start the fourth quarter as Mike Davis (nine points) and McQueen scored back-to-back buckets. Mentor would not get closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Cardinals, who had made nearly 300 3-pointers this season, were only 2-of-12 from that range.
Coach Krizancic did not hesitate when asked if the Bulldogs were the best team his team had faced throughout a grueling schedule.
"Yes," he responded. "And Trey Lewis is just a great player. Not much went our way. They are a load. We didn't get a lot of good looks on 3's and that's a credit to their defense."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:trogers@plaind.com, 216-999-5169