GATES MILLS, Ohio — Many of the area's traditional high school basketball powers spent this season beating up on each other.
Now the postseason looms, with the exception of a few regular-season finales Saturday.
Some coaches rewarded teams that played difficult schedules. Take the Division II North Ridgeville District, where those programs voted Cleveland Central Catholic their tournament's No. 1 seed despite eight losses.
Central Catholic and Benedictine spent last season in Division I because of OHSAA competitive balance. Both are back in Division II, but in different divisions. Bengals coach Rob Stircula is glad to be back. He also is happy the regular season is over, finishing up Friday night with a 75-69 win at No. 21 Gilmour.
His Bengals, though, will be the third seed at Stow with nine losses.
"We've got to have the toughest schedule in Division II," Stircula said. "Yeah, we got the three seed, but if you put a lot of those teams in that district on our schedule, I don't know if they come out with 12 wins."
Now is the time to show just what those stern tests all season meant: priceless conditioning for a deep postseason run or just a chance to pound your chest about a tough schedule.
Full disclosure, the cleveland.com Top 25 favors teams with difficult schedules. The Associated Press state poll? Evidence points to win-loss records above all else. Neither matter, though. (Even with cleveland.com's final rankings coming Monday.)
"When we lost to Benedictine, I think we dropped out of the AP poll," Villa Angela-St. Joseph coach Babe Kwasniak said Thursday, referring to a game last week. "We've won I think one AP poll championship since I've been here and we've won three state championships."
That is what matters now. Cutting the nets in two weeks to celebrate a district championship, or the week after that for a regional title and a trip to Columbus. Of course, only four teams in Ohio get to hoist a state championship trophy a month from now at Value City Arena.
Northeast Ohio swept the state finals two years ago and won just one last year. That quest soon begins.
For one more time — at least in the regular season — here is a look around Northeast Ohio in the boys basketball rewind.
Click here for Friday's scoreboard.
Kwasniak said Thursday after a 93-68 loss at No. 5 St. Edward that he didn't plan it like this: Monday against No. 4 Mentor, Tuesday at No. 1 St. Vincent-St. Mary and Thursday against the Eagles. Three losses against three of the area's best.
Kwasniak at least took solace in knowing it couldn't hurt his district seeding. On Friday, the Vikings — ranked No. 7 in the cleveland.com Top 25 — earned a reprieve. They hosted the Broadmoor Bobcats in the morning for their annual event, then clinched their North Coast League Red Division title with a 59-44 win vs. St. Thomas Aquinas.
VASJ, Gilmour and Lake Catholic won the NCL's three divisions, based on play within those divisions. No. 8 Archbishop Hoban can make a claim for a Red Division share with VASJ based on overall NCL record, but not every team played an even number of league games (counting in and outside of their divisions).
Before this season, not all coaches could agree on the color-coded names of their divisions. Fittingly, one of the championships could be open to interpretation.
Mercifully, the NCL is slated to return next season back to its two-division format.
As for VASJ, it still has to return next week to St. Edward for a scrimmage. The schools have done it since 2014 to prepare for the postseason. It has helped them reach Columbus seven times in that stretch.
Perry already clinched a share of the Chagrin Valley Conference's Chagrin Division title with a 52-50 win Tuesday at Orange. Beachwood still had a shot at a share, but needed to top Harvey on the road to make that happen. Instead, junior Bishop Thomas scored 24 points and the Red Raiders ruined the Bison's hopes with a 44-36 win.
Harvey finished with matching 11-3 CVC records with Perry, but the Pirates took the tiebreaker by sweeping the Raiders with last week's 65-63 road win.
In case you missed it, Demetrius Terry provided St. Edward with a senior night air show in the second half of the Eagles' 93-68 win Thursday against VASJ.
Junior forward Devontae Blanton scored 31 points, while guard Grant Huffman added 20 points and flirted with a triple-double. Terry, a senior guard, had 15 and made for a memorable night.
Relieve it below.
Brunswick senior guard Kyle Goessler needed just six points to break 2014 graduate Ryan Badowski's school scoring record. He got 40. The 6-foot-1 point guard has rewritten much of Brunswick's record books with the most games played, field goals and 3-pointers.
Despite his efforts Friday, Euclid held on at home for a 72-70 win.
No. 8 Archbishop Hoban (16-5) at No. 10 East Tech (19-2): A late addition to the schedule, Hoban and East Tech will play earlier than usual with a 4:30 p.m. start.
No. 18 Lake Catholic (17-4) at No. 4 Mentor (18-2): A neighborhood rivalry in Mentor, some of the area's top guard play will be on display with a trio of cool hand Lukes — the Cardinals' tandem of Luke Floriea and Luke Chicone with Lake Catholic's Luke Frazier. Mentor is coming off 97-58 home win Friday vs. Elyria in which senior Matt Sabin came off the bench to score a team-high 20 points.
Click here for Saturday's schedule.
Contact sports reporter Matt Goul on Twitter (@mgoul) or email ([email protected]).
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