Madison, Mayfield boys advance in Division I

Mayfield sweeps through South, and Madison edges Riverside again to gain berths in the sectional final round. Madison will travel to Cleveland Heights, with Mayfield on its way to Mentor.

Madison fell behind by double-digits late in the third quarter of its Division I sectional semifinal against visiting Riverside on Feb. 26. As leading scorer Chris Blauman struggled through a rough shooting night, the Beavers were poised to assume control.

Ryan Bowers responded with a layup, then Alex Dragas connected from 3. Bowers then blocked a shot and skipped ahead to Dragas, who sped down the floor for a layup that brought the Blue Streaks within three headed to the fourth.

Madison locked down Riverside for the first six minutes of the fourth quarter,

MADISON 62, RIVERSIDE 60

Blauman and Bowers supplied enough offense and the Blue Streaks advanced past the Beavers, 62-60.

Bowers scored a gamehigh 16 points while Blauman finished with 11. After Riverside took a 47-37 lead, Madison scored 11 unanswered points as part of a 20-4 run keyed by plays the Blue Streaks are confident Blauman’s supporting cast can make.

“Oh, it can happen all the time,” Bowers said. “Even when he’s on, we still play like that. We always finish, we shoot decently well and also, the defense is always there. As long as we play great defense, it doesn’t matter who scores.”

Madison improved to 15-8. The Blue Streaks advanced to a sectional final at Cleveland Heights on Feb. 29.

Madison defeated Riverside for the third time this season. Each came down to a single possession and the three games were decided by seven points in aggregate.

Grayson Wolf hit a pair of 3s while six of his Riverside teammates scored to help the Beavers build a 2018 lead after a quarter. Riverside led by three before Bowers made a 3-pointer, Blauman tipped back a miss and added a free throw for a 35-32 halftime lead.

Madison and Riverside traded the lead to open the third. Wolf’s bucket gave the Beavers a 38-37 lead and kickstarted Riverside’s 11-0 run.

Madison coach Nick Gustin called timeout as the game was on the verge of slipping out of his team’s grasp.

“I’m not a big timeout guy,” Gustin said. “I kind of like to let our kids figure it out. But I just kind of felt that they had all the momentum and we kind of let them blow their momentum up. We just kind of stuck to what we wanted to do and did it.”

Blauman sank a pair of free throws early in the fourth to put Madison up for good, 50-49. Justus Albert’s layup extended the Blue Streaks’ layup to six, 57-51, as two minutes remained in regulation.

Bowers added two transition layups and knocked down two free throws to help Madison stave off Riverside’s attempt to come back.

“We never felt un-confident,” Blauman said. “We always felt like we were still in control. We weren’t too worried. We just had to get it going a little bit. Once we got running and got some energy in this place, it was a lot easier to roll with them.”

Mason Stephens and Caden Geiger led the Beavers with 13 points apiece. Wolf chipped in 11. Riverside concluded the season 8-15. Stephens and Geiger led the team in scoring this year and will return to lead next season’s group as seniors.

Coach Matt Grendel liked the growth his team demonstrated after the Beavers lost two of their first 10 games. Riverside notched impressive wins against South, Lakeside and Beachwood in the season’s second half. Grendel has high expectations for the backcourt headed into next year.

“They can hopefully be leaders for us in the offseason,” Grendel said. “I just was talking to them in (the locker room) that, now, they’re officially seniors, really, for our program. They’ve got make sure that, once we get going here, they’ve got to be setting the positive example for everyone that’s coming up, be the hardest-working guys in the gym, the weight room, everything that we’re doing.”