'It's just different': St. Ignatius too much for Jackson in OHSAA regional basketball
KENT — For all the respect Cameron Joyce has for the Jackson High School boys basketball program, the fifth-year St. Ignatius head coach wondered what would happen when the Polar Bears experienced the reality of his Wildcats on Wednesday.
The size and speed.
The traps and closeouts.
The sheer force.
"I knew they hadn't seen too many teams like us," Joyce said. "It's just different."
A bit overwhelming, too.
Jackson hung around with the powerful Wildcats for a quarter before they pulled away for an 87-63 win in this Division I regional semifinal at Kent State.
Damon Friery, a 6-foot-10 junior with the skill and explosiveness to play on the perimeter, led Ignatius (23-3) with 20 points and six rebounds as it advances to face Brunswick (23-4) in Friday's regional final back at Kent State.
Brunswick is a really good team with size and skill that took down GlenOak in a hard-fought regional semifinal on Tuesday. But to be truthful, a combined all-star team of Brunswick, Jackson and GlenOak players might not be able to tame the Wildcats, who look more like a Division II college team than a high school team.
Besides the 6-10 Friery, who has scholarship offers ranging from Georgia to Arizona State, Ignatius has 6-8 Cleveland State recruit Reece Robinson. Guard Quinn Woidke, a 6-foot junior who leads Ignatius in scoring on the season and finished with 10 points Wednesday, was an All-Northeast Lakes District first-team pick.
Sam Springer, a 6-7 senior who is an Air Force recruit, is done for the season because of a foot injury. No worries, the Wildcats, who were ranked No. 2 in the final Associated Press state poll behind Cincinnati Moeller, just plug in seniors such as 6-4 Mike Lamirand or 6-1 Matt Ellis.
"They have everything," Jackson head coach Tim Debevec said. "That's a state championship-type team."
In 32 years of coaching, including a 2017 state championship during his 13 years as Jackson's head coach, Debevec estimates this Ignatius team might be one of the top five or six teams he's ever faced.
After making it to the state semifinals in 2021 and '22, the Wildcats lost in a regional semifinal last year at Kent State 38-37 to Garfield Heights.
The loss stuck with Joyce and the Wildcats, who have become a fast-paced, downhill-attacking team.
"We talked about it pregame: We came in this gym last year and put up 37 points," Joyce said. "I said I want that at halftime (Wednesday), and we had 40. We've changed up some things we've done this year and we're going to be relentless all game long. We're not going to let up. We believe in our style. We believe in our defense. We believe in what has got us here."
Jackson shot a combined 4-for-27 from the floor in the second and third quarters as Ignatius' size and tenacity took hold.
Keep in mind, Jackson (22-5) entered the night shooting 50.6% from the floor as a team on the season, having won 14 straight games and 19 of its last 20.
The Polar Bears actually came out of the gates fast, leading 7-2 on a Mitch Finefrock 3-pointer just more than two minutes in. They led as late as the final two minutes of the quarter, with an Anthony Fuline pull-up jumper giving them a 16-15 advantage.
Friery answered with a jumper on the other end, giving Ignatius back the lead and starting an avalanche that would ultimately bury Jackson.
Friery's bucket triggered a 19-1 Wildcat run that covered a quarter break and two Jackson timeouts.
Ellis scored 12 of his 15 points during that five-minute blitz, which had Ignatius up 34-17 midway through the second quarter.
"One of our coaches says we have 'spurt-ability,'" Joyce said with a laugh.
The Wildcats would spurt one more time, opening the second half on a 14-4 run that took a 40-24 halftime lead to 54-28 midway through the third. Robinson scored 10 of his 17 points during that run.
The Wildcats' lead grew as big as 32 early in the fourth quarter. They entered Wednesday winning their tournament games by 34.3 on average.
Debevec believed the Polar Bears needed to hit somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 3-pointers to stay afloat. They finished with seven — four of them from the junior Finefrock, who scored 14 points on the night.
"Our kids battled, but they got too many easy buckets with 6-10 and 6-8 in there," Debevec said. "You can't fall behind. Once you fall behind, they're too good to come back on. We felt like we had to keep it within five points going into the fourth quarter."
Fuline, Jackson's only senior, was terrific Wednesday with a team-high 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Junior Kyle Monterrubio added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Polar Bears, who won a share of their second straight Federal League title and their first district championship since 2021.
"We're going to miss Anthony a lot. It's going to be hard to replace him," Debevec said. "But we've got to take a couple of weeks off and then regroup. We have to see how we can get to that next level to get back to state. I thought we had a great year. I'm proud of our guys. I thought they kept fighting til the end.
"Sometimes you just run into a great team like that."
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This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ohio high school boys basketball Jackson vs St. Ignatius regional
