By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

There were so many numbers working against the Streetsboro boys basketball team in Friday’s Division IV sectional final.

Field goals: 12-of-49 (25 percent).

Free throws: 9-of-16 (56 percent).

Three-pointers: 4-of-22 (18 percent).

Oh, and the Rockets only scored two points (1-of-13 shooting from the field) in the entire third quarter.

Many coaches would agree that it would be difficult for any team to survive any one of those slumps and still advance in the postseason.

The most important numbers, though, the final score, belonged to the Rockets, who withstood Bay’s upset bid to claim a 37-34 victory and sectional championship in Streetsboro.

The relentlessness that the Rockets displayed, especially in a gritty fourth quarter, was something that head coach Nick Marcini said was a reflection of his team not wanting to have their season end on their own home court.

“What you saw was a group of seniors fighting for a win on their home court,” Marcini said. “Fighting to keep the season alive.”

Mission accomplished.

The win advances Streetsboro to Tuesday’s district semifinal at West Branch, which defeated Canton South, 44-38, on Friday.

As bad as the third quarter was for the Rockets (13-10), they kept it from being disastrous by continuing to play solid defense to hold Bay to only five points.

Trailing 24-22 going into the fourth quarter, Marcini had a new defensive message for his team: Go get ’em.

Marcini was desperate to find momentum somewhere, find points somewhere, so he shifted his team out of their matchup zone defense and into full-court man pressure.

It didn’t take long for the decision to provide the energy he was looking for.

On the first possession of the fourth quarter, junior guard PJ Robinson swiped a steal in the backcourt and was fouled on his way in for the layup. Robinson, who had not scored since early in the second quarter, sunk both of his shots from the charity stripe that seemed to rejuvenate him.

In the decisive fourth quarter, Robinson buried a 3-pointer, connected on 4-of-6 shots from the free-throw line, scored seven points and had two steals.

He was far from alone.

The full-court action brought new energy to seniors Braden Hodge, Ethan Laryea and Janiere Cook, who all were instrumental in both ends of the court in the final 8 minutes to help the Rockets outscore Bay 15-10.

In a game when they only scored 37 total, scoring 15 in the fourth quarter seemed like a waterfall of offense, with nine of those points coming at the line.

“We wanted to generate our offense from our defense. It just didn’t happen in the third quarter, but eventually we got there,” Marcini said.

Hodge, who had three steals in the fourth quarter, hit a 3-pointer to put Streetsboro up 27-24 with 7:09 to play. The lead was short lived, though, as Bay (7-16) reclaimed the advantage at 29-28 on a layup by Brody Biggs.

Robinson gave the Rockets the lead back with a 3 of his own, lifting his team back in front 31-29.

Laryea stretched the lead to 34-31 with a free throw at the 1:10 mark, then pushed it to 36-31 with two more free throws with less than 20 seconds remaining.

Bay freshman Kelan Rose then sunk a pull-up 3 at the top of the key with 11.8 seconds left. Bay fouled Laryea on the ensuing possession. He split the pair to make the score 37-34, missing the second shot and sending Bay into a rush up the court to search for the potential game-tying shot.

However, Streetsboro defended the ball well and tight, forcing Bay to lose control of possession as time expired and before it could even get a shot attempt off.

Robinson led all scorers in the game with 12 points. Hodge added seven points, while Cook had six points, eight rebounds, three assists and five steals; and Laryea had six points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Bay’s offensive leaders were Ryan Miller (10 points — all in the first half) and Emmitt Naughton (9 points). Jack Bly delivered eight rebounds and three blocked shots for Bay.