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Sports

Solon Boys' Basketball Beats South, Advances to Districts

Brillhart's timely heroics lift Comets over Rebels

Solon’s Nate Brillhart clearly has a great sense of timing.

Deep in the third quarter, Willoughby South looked like it was ready to put Solon out of the Division I boys' basketball sectional final at Euclid High School on Saturday, but Brillhart sensed the moment had arrived to change that.

Down five, Brillhart scored six straight points – including one spectacular steal and layup – to close the quarter and shift the game’s momentum, sending the Comets (9-13) on their way to the district semifinals with a 62-53 victory over the Rebels (14-8) Saturday night.

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Solon will face conference rival Brush at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Brush defeated Solon twice this season in the Northeast Ohio Conference.

Without Brillhart’s efforts, the Comets wouldn’t have gotten a third chance at the Arcs.

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In that game-changing sequence, Brillhart, with the help of teammate Patrick Kramer, ripped off a steal at half court and streaked toward the basket as Willoughby South’s Kareem Hunt gave chase.  In a desperate attempt to block Brillhart’s layup, Hunt leapt and fouled him. The ball dropped through the cup to tie the game, and Brillhart sank the free throw to take the lead into the fourth quarter, 38-37.

“It was a big momentum change," said Brillhart, who finished with 14 points. "The refs weren’t giving us much. I guess I just stepped up. We played great defense and it just came to us.” 

After that sequence, the Rebels managed to tie the game at 41, but the Comets took over from there. After Denzel Davis scored to give the Comets the lead, they never trailed again, going on an 8-2 run for a 49-43 lead with 1:58 remaining. All the Rebels did at that point was put the Comets on the line where they converted 11 of 14 attempts to close the game with a Brandon Marshall layup on an outlet pass from Liam O’Brien tucked in between.

“I thought our defensive effort has been great," said Solon Coach Sean Fisher. "These last four or five games, we’ve gotten on this roll. It’s really been our defense that’s key to everything. We defended and rebounded and that’s what you do to win championships."

In the third quarter, there were two ties and six lead changes with five of them coming from one basket after another. Finally, Dominic Federico closed the flip-flopping lead changes with a bucket for a 32-31 lead and then Drew Schaller gave the Rebels a little breathing room with two foul shots at 2:04.

The Rebels pushed their advantage to 37-32 when Brillhart made his move.

Finding breathing room was tough for both teams in the first half. In the first quarter, Christopher Cromity canned a 3-pointer to give the Comets a brief 8-5 lead at 3:54. But Nick Vitale wiped that away by converting a three-point play to tie the score. After both teams exchanged 3-pointers, the Comets finally went ahead on Patrick Kramer’s score to end the quarter, 13-11.

DeAndre Payton got into the scoring column with a pair of buckets in a 4-2 exchange in favor of Solon in the second quarter’s early going to give the Comets its largest lead to that point, 17-13, but Brian Klements’ three-pointer drew the Rebels within 17-16.

South took the lead, 20-19, on Federico’s tough inside basket at 4:21, but the Comets regained the lead on the last score of the half on Cromity’s 3-pointer to give Solon the lead, 24-22.

GAME SUMMARY

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr FINAL Solon 13 11 14 24 62 Will. South 11 11 15 16 53

SCORING SUMMARY

Solon: Nate Brillhart 14, Christopher Cromity 14, Brandon Marshall 14, Patrick Kramer 7, DeAndre Payton 5, Alex Giterman 3, Liam O’Brien 3, Denzell Davis 2.

Willoughby South: Brian Klements 19, Nick Vitale 12, Jalen Jones 9, Kareem Hunt 6, Dominic Federico 6, Drew Schaller 1.

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