Revere Boys KO North Royalton, 54-43

All game long, the student sections from both and North Royalton High School peppered each other with loud chants and good-natured slogans, trying to ‘fire up’ their teams.  On Wednesday night, both boys’ teams left the war of words for their fans, and battled on the hardwoods for the right to advance to the District finals. On this night, that honor would go to the Minutemen.

, behind a game-high 15 points from senior ., knocked out North Royalton, 54-43, in the second District semifinals’ game held at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School.  Earlier, the Eagles of Lakewood St. Edward (17-5 record) routed rival Lakewood by 54-points (93-39) to move onto the finals. Both (21-1) and St. Ed’s will face each other on Saturday at the same court at 7 p.m.

Against North Royalton, Revere head coach praised his team’s resourcefulness.

“What do I think we did well? We found a way to win. This was an ugly game between two good teams, and we got the job done,” he said.

Revere started off fast, forcing the Bears into several early errors leading to quick points. The Minutemen grabbed a six-point lead (16-10) at the end of the first quarter, with half of the team’s points coming from their standout senior, Nance. North Royalton’s Ned Tomic battled hard against the stout Revere front court of Nance and senior center Conor Edel, scoring eight of the Bears’ 10 points in the early going.

The senior guard play of Revere’s and made sure that the North Royalton guard tandem of Travis Tarnowski and Colin McCullough never settled in, pressing their opponents into mishaps and errant passes. The Minutemen outscored the Bears by four (13-9) at the end of the second quarter and took a 29-19 lead into halftime.

North Royalton trailed by nine points (37-28) entering the final quarter, and never got any closer than within six points. Clutch foul-shooting down the stretch from Nance, Wonders, and Bettinger would push the final margin of victory into double digits (11 points).

Despite the hard-fought win, Rahas thought his team could use some more work before Saturday’s finals.

“We need to be sharper and more consistent with our effort. St. Ed’s is a very athletic team with a lot of guards. They can all shoot, pass, and dribble, so it’s hard to key on just one guy. We need an all-around effort to win,” he said.

North Royalton was led by Tomic and McCullough, who each scored 14 points. The Minutemen were paced by Nance and Bettinger, who scored 14 points.