I was at the game. The Cats were ok, considering it was the opening game of the season.
Medina was ranked #14 in NE Ohio by Cleveland.com and had some height in their starting line-up with two listed @ 6-5 and one listed @ 6-6.
Here are links to game summaries by the Medina Gazette and the Ignatius’ athletics website. Both are good write-ups.
CLEVELAND — The final score looked bad, but Medina boys basketball coach Chris Hassinger liked a lot of what he saw.
medina-gazette.com
Led by Quinn Woidke's game-high 19 points, the Wildcats open the season with a 79-52 win over Medina.
www.ignatiuswildcats.com
The Cats have a good core of 9 in their primary rotation. 7 of them return with experience - major minutes played last season in the primary rotation. The 2 new players to the rotation are Quinn Woidke (out last year due to injury) and Kalli Johnson (son of the new CSU assistant coach). Four players are D-1 recruits (seniors Springer and Robinson, juniors Friery and Quinn Woidke). PG Zapolnik is getting D3 offers. Lamirand, Ellis, Martin are really solid players. I like the talent of this core group and there is good height with 6-7 Springer, 6-8 Robinson and 6-10 Friery.
Much of the Cats’ points came on steals from Medina turnovers off the Cats’ full court, trapping press. However, I think the ‘jury is out’ on that ‘new’ version of their press – it can create steals, but also generates a lot of fouls and opportunities for the opposing team to break the press for easy baskets. The Cats should get better at it, but its value is mixed between the pluses and minuses. The Cats’ half court defense was very solid.
Offensively, it was good to see the ‘bigs’ get more touches in the half court game. Outside shooting was not good during the first half, but the Cats did better in the 2nd half with a good shooting % and four 3-pointers.
JVs won 57-45 vs Medina and won again on Sunday 61-41 vs Cleveland Heights.
Freshmen Gold won 68-27 vs. Medina. Freshmen Blue won 51-22 vs. Cleveland Heights and won 58-21 vs. Euclid this past weekend.
On the JV team, the 2 freshmen, Sami Dari and Stephen Bohanon are pretty good. Sophomores Alex Mack (who must have made six 3-pointers), RJ Jones, Caleb Cupp and Daniel Chalhoub were solid.
Next are Louisville and VASJ before a really tough back-to-back on Dec. 16-17 with Richmond Heights and Reynoldsburg (who beat Richmond Heights by 2 this past weekend)