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Stokes’ key basket helps Leetonia win
By BRANDON JUDEH
North Jackson
Cody Stokes’ basket late in the game helped the Leetonia High boys basketball team defeat Jackson-Milton, 73-69, in Tuesday’s tightly contested game
After the Bears (4-5, 2-4 Inter Tri-County League Tier Two) built a commanding 12-point lead with a little more than two minutes remaining, the Bluejays (6-5, 4-2) surged with 3-pointers.
The Bluejays hit four threes down the stretch, with Ryan Nagy tying the game with about 20 seconds to go.
That’s when the Bears gave the ball to Stokes.
“The big fella has a nose to score, he’s versatile he can do it all,” Leetonia head coach Mark Taylor said. “We asked him to post up and score on that last play and he converted. He’s a great player.”
After Stokes, who scored 30 points and grabbed 12 boards, hit the go-ahead basket with 10.4 seconds remaining, the Bluejays had a chance to tie the game, but a critical turnover gave the ball back to the Bears. Two free throws iced the game.
“We have been stressing in practice to play as a team and we came out tonight and did just that,” Stokes said. “After I hit the winning shot, coach told us to play it safe, no fouls and we pulled it out.”
After the Bluejays dominated early, the Bears shifted the momentum in the last two minutes of the second quarter. Leetonia went on a 8-0 run to take a 36-31 lead into halftime.
Early foul trouble by Nagy cost the Bluejays on the offensive end; he recovered by scoring all 21 of his points, including five 3-pointers, in the second half.
Brennen Morrison helped the Bluejays out by scoring 11 first half points and adding six rebounds in Nagy’s absence. He scored 15. John Gherardi added a solid nine points and eight boards.
“With Ryan getting three fouls in the first quarter, that really hurt us,” Jackson-Milton coach Gary Nagy said. “He is one of our leading scorers, just look what he did in the second half.”
Though it hasn’t been an easy rebuilding process, Nagy says he owes a lot of the credit to his staff and the hard work of his players.
“[We] came in here and have stressed defense, that has been our forte this year and the more defensive pressure we apply the better we will be,” Nagy said.
The Bluejays are off to their best start since 2003-04 when Steve Sachire was roaming the sidelines and Tim Shaw was dominating.
“This group of kids is the same group that I started coaching when they were in fourth grade,” Nagy said. “To be able to come in at the end of their careers and coach them as seniors is a great moment for all of us.”