A team effort propelled the men’s basketball team to the Division II regional final yesterday at James A. Rhodes Arena in Akron. 

The No. 17 seed Raiders defeated a fatigued Brecksville-Broadview Heights team, the No. 4 seed, 54-50 in overtime. 

Head coach Danny Young said the team’s unity fueled the victory. “I don’t really have one guy who can get a bucket like they had. It was a team effort. A collective effort. I’m very proud of them ’cause there were so many times they could’ve dropped their heads and quit but they didn’t,” Young said.

Three Raiders hit double figures. Junior guard Kevin Lowery led with 12 points. Senior guard Mek Black and junior forward Jacire Eaddy each added 10 points.

Bees’ senior guard Brady Ganley led all scorers with 24 points.

After Eaddy won the opening tip-off, Lowery made a corner three to open the game’s scoring. The Raiders immediately picked up the Bees all 94 feet with a full-court press.

Lowery continued to attack the Bees’ 2-3 zone with a pull-up midrange jumper to make it 5-2, Raiders. “Beginning of the game as the point guard, I got to set the tone. No matter what time it is, I’m always trying to stay energized. The easy shot was wide open,” Lowery said.

Ganley and Bees’ forward Ben Mehendale each hit free throws to finish the first quarter and put Brecksville up by one, 12-11.

To open the second quarter, senior forward Landon Future made a three from the wing to give the Raiders the lead. Following a Ganley layup that put the Bees up 16-14, Future’s thundering block of Bees junior guard Steven Skaljac set up sophomore guard Christopher Cunningham for a transition layup.

The first half ended with Brecksville leading, 18-16. The Raiders shot 30 percent from the field while the Bees shot 20 percent. Young said neither he nor the team lost faith at the half. “I told them, ‘If you don’t believe you’re going to win, we got a problem,’ ” said Young. “And they said they believed.” 

Coming out of the half, junior forward Reggie Appleby was fouled while attempting a posterizing dunk over Mehendale. Appleby made one of two from the line to cut the Bees’ lead to one.

Throughout the quarter, the Raiders played patient offense and extended their possessions. Senior forward John Horn hit a triple to put the Raiders up 20-18. Ganley then powered the Bees to an 8-0 run, putting them up 26-20. The Raiders ended the third quarter trailing 29-25.

After a Bees bucket to open the fourth quarter, Black attacked the paint and sank a floater.

Ganley attacked the defense with a cross-over mid-range jumper to put the Bees up 33-27. Brecksville made their first sub of the game with 5:49 left in the fourth quarter.

Ganley converted an and-1 layup to give the Bees their biggest lead of the night, 37-29. 

Horn was not scared of the deficit. “My teammates and my coaches, we all stay together. In the huddles going into timeouts, we kept saying, ‘We going to be alright’ and kept fighting. We’ve been down all season, so it was nothing new to us,” Horn said.

Free throws from Black and Lowery brought the Raiders within three, 39-36. Ganley warded the Raiders’ surge with a reverse layup, immediately followed by a Cunningham floater to keep Brecksville up three.

Skaljac was fouled but missed both free throws. Black sank a contested layup over Bees senior forward Luke Sokolowski to make it 41-40.

The Bees turned the ball over while bringing it up the court, forcing them to foul Eaddy, who drilled both free throws to put the Raiders up 42-41 with 28.7 seconds left.

Lowery then fouled Skaljac, who made one of two from the stripe to tie the game. On the miss, Skaljac grabbed the offensive rebound and passed the ball to Ganley, who  sized up Eaddy and drove left. Eaddy heavily contested the layup, forcing a Ganley miss as time expired and sending the game into overtime. 

Eaddy said the defense was a testament to the work he has put in. “All the times we did defensive slides, and all the practices we had, through the snow, through the rain and in the summer, I trust that. Even though I had four fouls, I knew I could sit on him,” he said.

Horn scored the first bucket of the four-minute overtime with 2:44 left. 

Young said that the low-scoring start to overtime was not a coincidence. “We scouted them a lot; they only play six or seven. We thought we could wear them down, especially in that overtime, so we turned the heat up on defense,” he said.

Ganley picked up a loose ball foul on Eaddy, who missed both free throws. But Horn rose over Mehendale to capture the offensive rebound.  Mehendale fouled Horn, which fouled him out of the game. Horn made both shots at the line, putting the Raiders up four.

Ganley scored a contested layup, and Lowery’s free throw made it 47-44.

Ganley missed a three, fouled Lowery, and became the second Bee to foul out. Lowery made both free throws. Cunningham added another two points from the stripe.

Skaljac drilled a step-back three to cut the Raiders lead to four with 26.6 seconds left. Following a Lowery free throw, Skaljac missed a three that led to a transition layup by Black. 

Skaljac scored a three as time expired to make the final score 54-50, Shaker.

The Raiders will face No. 15 seed Massillon Perry in the regional final at 1 p.m. Saturday at James A. Rhodes Arena, the home of the Akron Zips.

Black said the team’s composure late in the game was no accident. “That’s what our coach tells us to do. We practiced that all day,” said Black. “I just love my guys and love my coach.”

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