No matter what the rankings are, anything can happen in the postseason. Those words rang true for the Crestwood Red Devils boys’ basketball team when their resurgent season ended with a 42-39 loss against Smithville in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III Northeast I sectional championship last Friday evening in Mantua.
“It was a tough pill to swallow,” said Coach Josh Jakacki. “We got off to a great start and missed some opportunities to push that lead. We were up 16-4 and missed some opportunities to push that lead to 24-4. I turned and told my staff at that moment that some of these missed opportunities are going to come back to bite us in the butt and sure enough they did.”
Despite posting a 19-3 regular season and winning their first Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division championship since joining the CVC, the Red Devils’ season once again fell short of advancing to the district semifinal.
Tied at 37-37 in the fourth quarter, Crestwood (19-4, 10-0) and the Smithies were deadlocked in a defensive duel.
Smithville went ahead 39-37 on a one- and-one basket by senior guard Evan Steiner, who missed the free throw. The Red Devils could not score the game-tying basket and the Smithies extended their lead by making two more free throws down the stretch.
“We battled and our kids did not quit and like I said, Smithville is a well-coached team that had their guys ready and as I stated they just made plays when they counted,” said the nine-year coach.
Smithville led 42-39 in the final seconds and the Red Devils attempted a game-tying three-pointer to send the game into overtime but missed the shot, ending their season.
According to Jakacki, although it was a bitter ending to what was a memorable season, he made sure to let his team know that the season-ending loss did not diminish what his squad accomplished this year.
After enduring a stretch of two seasons where they only recorded five victories, Jakacki said his team showed incredible resiliency by taking the lessons learned from those two seasons to capture 19 wins in the regular season and a conference banner.
In addition to that, the Red Devils added another milestone to the season by earning Jakacki’s 300th career coaching victory.
“When you coach long enough those things just happen organically,” Jakacki said. “You have to be blessed to have coached a number of wonderful young men. Obviously, you need talent. I have coached a lot of talented kids from a personal standpoint. You are in this profession for kids so us having the relationships we are able to have with the kids certainly outweighs any sort of personal achievements that happen along the way.”
In the first quarter last Friday, Crestwood seemed in control by racing out to a 16-4 lead, sparked by junior guard Dekota Johnson, who buried four 3-pointers to push the Red Devils to a 16-4 advantage.
“Dekota has put a ton of time in and is almost a 1,300 point scorer as a junior and arguably will be the greatest scorer in our school history,” noted Jakacki. “He is a kid that is able to put the ball in the hole and led us in scoring last night with 25.”
Despite the fast start, the Red Devils could not convert on several opportunities around the rim to extend their lead and those missed chances allowed Smithville to fight its way back into the game.
The Smithies outscored Crestwood by a 16-5 margin in the second quarter. Despite the Red Devils knocking down four 3-pointers in the first period, Smithville’s defense remained committed to defending the perimeter and played physical defense against the 6-foot Johnson.
Jakacki acknowledged that the Smithies’ physicality wore Johnson down by the fourth period. After scoring 12 points in the opening period, Johnson only scored 13 points in the next three quarters.
“They played within the rules but there were some things they were allowed to get away with and it certainly wore him down, specifically by the fourth quarter because he was carrying much of the offensive load for the bulk of the game,” noted Jakacki.
It was a back-and-forth affair in the second half and despite getting a lot of good looks at the basket, Crestwood squandered too many scoring opportunities.
Despite graduating five seniors from this year’s team, Jakacki said the future remains bright for Crestwood with four of its starting five projected to return next year and he also has high hopes for the incoming freshman class to immediately contribute.
“We have four starters and have guys who are in the pipeline coming up and certainly think they have bright futures as well,” he said. “We are excited about the talent in the gym and we just have to continue we do a good job of continuing to cultivate it.”
