MEDINA, Ohio — The Medina girls basketball team continued to roll Saturday, but the Bees’ entrance into the rarified air of top-notch basketball is certainly not an accident and clearly not unexpected — at least not in-house.
Medina remained unbeaten after completely shutting down visiting Brunswick in the second half on the way to a 48-25 victory in Greater Cleveland Conference play. The Bees are 13-0 overall and 7-0 in the conference, while Brunswick falls to 7-6 and 4-3.
“We have a lot of momentum and confidence because of this start,” Medina coach Karen Kase said. “But it’s not just an overnight success story from our perspective. I think maybe we’re opening some eyes outside of Medina, but for us this started last year with the mindset and the chemistry that we have.”
The Bees are hoping to win their first conference title since 2013. They traveled to Orlando the week after Christmas and won their bracket in a prestigious tournament that saw them defeat teams from Georgia, California and Ohio. Ringgold, the team from Georgia, was 8-1 and ranked eighth in the state when the teams met, but Medina prevailed, 47-44.
“They just compete really well,” Kase said of her team. “They want to keep that standard really high no matter who we’re playing, whether we’re home or away or in Florida or wherever. They’re driven. They’re determined, and it’s sort of a snowball effect right now. It’s picking up steam.”
For Brunswick it was more like a steam roller. Playing without leading scorer Angela Fink, injured in the late stages of the team’s previous game, the Blue Devils came out fired up and took an 8-3 lead. Brunswick also led, 11-5, and two minutes into the second quarter the score was tied at 14.
But that’s when things feel apart for the short-handed visitors. An 11-4 run gave Medina a 25-18 halftime lead and Brunswick’s offense was almost non-existent in the second half. The Blue Devils managed only seven points after halftime, two in the third period, and then five in the final 37 seconds of the game. Thus, Brunswick scored only two points in a span of 15:23.
“The difference between the two teams was that they made their shots when they were open and we couldn’t get anything to fall down,” Brunswick coach Anthony Ocacio said. “Against a good team like that you have to be almost perfect. You have to handle the basketball, you have to rebound, you have to defend, you have to make your shots. I thought we did a good job of running our offense and getting good looks, but we couldn’t finish it.”
Of course, Medina had a hand in that. The Bees are allowing just over 34 points per game, employing a suffocating man-to-man defense and sometimes a diamond press. They put pressure on the ball and they have three 6-footers in their rotation who protect the basket. Leading the way is 6-foot-3 junior Lindsey Linard, who had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks, her third double-double of the season.
“Defense is a huge focal point of our team,” Linard said. “We always talk about leading with defense because your effort is something you can control. Every player can go out there and give it their all because we have such a deep bench and can sub people in and out.”
On this night the Bees struggled offensively, as Brunswick played an active 2-3 zone that forced many outside shots. Enter super-soph Elizabeth Stuart, Medina’s version of instant offense. The sharpshooter hit five 3-pointers and two free throws to lead all players with a career-high 17 points.
“I put her in probably a little earlier than usual because of the zone, but she’s an offensive burst of a player,” Kase said. “She has outbursts for sure and we know she’s capable of scoring. She loves shooting those threes. She’s worked really hard on her defense, too. She really had it going today, and she plays with lots of energy and we feed off of it.”
Stuart has a very simple strategy on offense.
“I just let it fly,” she said. “Even though I missed a couple in the beginning, I just told myself to keep shooting and don’t think.”
The net result was another victory for a team that clearly is on a roll.
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