The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Rangers ride Boynar’s hot hand to victory
North Ridgeville’s Boynar scores gamehigh 31 points in win over Keystone
Effort can change a lot in high school sports and it certainly did on Feb. 16, as Keystone hosted North Ridgeville in a non-conference matchup.
The Wildcats (14-4), champions of the Lorain County League, came out flat against the Rangers, trailing by 11 at the half. The second half opened with an increase in effort from Keystone and with it the North Ridgeville lead shrunk from 11 to three.
Just under two minutes later the North Ridgeville (1010) lead ballooned back to 12 thanks to Jake Boynar. It hovered around that for a while as
the Rangers won 67-56.
“The kid gives 100-percent effort towards basketball,” North Ridgeville head coach Bryan Morgan said. “He’s the first one in the gym and the last to leave. (The 3-pointers) really carried us to victory tonight and we hope to be able to see that more often.”
Boynar — after shooting 0 for 4 from beyond the arc in the first half — erupted for three straight 3-pointers after a timeout from Morgan, following a Konnor Rodick three ball.
Boynar added three more in the fourth quarter as he tallied a game high 31-points.
From the final minute of the second quarter to the final buzzer the sophomore scored 25 of North Ridgeville’s 36 points.
“I felt like in the first half I was shooting them and they were just going in and out,,” Boynar said. “At halftime I just started working on my form and they started going in. It was a
good stretch, sometimes you just catch on fire and they start falling.”
Despite the hot shooting from Boynar, Keystone stayed within striking distance. The Wildcats again whittled down the Rangers lead to six in the middle moments of the fourth quarter with a seven point burst from Sean Saterlee, who finished with 12 points.
But Boynar quickly put the comeback bid to bed with his sixth and final 3-pointer putting his team back up nine.
The slow start from Keystone turned out to be its undoing. The Wildcats committed
11 first half turnovers kneecapping themselves ahead of a stronger effort in the second half.
“(In the second half) we defended well, we rebounded very well and we took care of the basketball,” Keystone head coach Jeff Holzhauer said. “If we do that the entire game then we’re fine, even without making shots. Our defensive effort in the second half was lacking.”
Keystone guard Ryan Walsh was held in check by the Rangers despite scoring 14 points. Walsh was continually harassed as he came off ball screens by North
Ridgeville defenders.
“We knew that Ryan is a good basketball player and if you let him get rolling he’s tough to stop,” Morgan said. “So we wanted to be a little more physical with him and blitz him off of those ball screens and I think that it really affected his game tonight.”
Keystone’s next test also comes from the Southwestern Conference, this time the Wildcats will draw that league’s champion, Amherst. North Ridgeville will look to finish its regular season above .500 with its final game against Lakewood ahead.