'Write our own history': Garfield boys basketball earns first district berth in 25 years

AKRON — To put it mildly, the Akron Garfield boys basketball program has been lost in a deep, dark wilderness.

There was a messy merger with now defunct Kenmore in 2017. There were building switches and name changes (the new high school is known as Garfield Community Learning Center).

And so, so much losing, going way back before the Rams' current players were even born.

Head coach McNeal Thompson III, who suffered through an 0-16 campaign in his first year with the program in 2020-21, had an idea.

"Let's write our own history, because it is a new school," said Thompson, in his fourth year overall after two years of Kenmore-Garfield and now two of the current iteration.

"We went through the merger, then back. It's kind of a new thing for them."

Winning is new, too, and the Rams are liking it.

Garfield pulled out a teeth-gritting, possession-by-possession Division I sectional final Saturday night against visiting Lake 41-40.

The No. 40 seed Rams (13-9) advance to face No. 5 seed Brunswick (20-4) in a 7 p.m. district semifinal on Wednesday at Copley High School. It is Garfield's first trip to the district level since the 1999 team won a district championship.

To get there, the Rams had to survive high-scoring guard Chance Casenhiser and a finally-whole Lake team that looked nothing like a No. 68 seed and had just knocked off No. 25 Brush.

Cory Rosenthal hit the shot of the game, which was his only bucket of the game. The Garfield junior guard made a short baseline jumper over the outstretched arms of two Lake defenders to put the Rams up 41-40 with 16 seconds left.

"It was a little scary," Rosenthal said of the Rams' possession, which saw more than a minute of game clock run off as they probed for a look. "Really, I was looking for one of my teammates to drive because I really wasn't hitting all game. I was off. I kept traveling. I was nervous and there were a lot of people here. But when I drove I had seen I didn't have anyone to pass to. I saw a little bit of an opening, so I just shot it and it went in."

Rosenthal followed with a steal on Lake's next possession. The Blue Streaks got another chance when Casenhiser drew an offensive foul as the Rams were trying to inbound with 1.2 seconds left.

This time it was Garfield junior Thomas Walker cutting in to steal an inbound pass from the baseline that looked destined to result in Lake's Josh Coffield putting in a point-blank game winner.

"We have a guy averaging almost 20 points a game," Thompson said of Walker. "He had eight points, but he came up with the biggest stop of the game.

"That's all I care about. I'm a defense-first guy. When they're shooting crazy shots, I don't even get on them. As long you're playing defense for me, it's good."

They needed to play a lot of defense with Casenhiser in the building. He entered the night averaging 25.4 points, including a whopping 35.3 over his last four games. Thompson compared trying to defend Casenhiser to facing Wadsworth's Maxx Bosley in the preseason.

The Rams limited Casenhiser to 13 points Saturday, with senior Antoine Wilson taking the lead role and Garfield running a second defender at him much of the night. Wilson also finished with eight points, including a massive 3-pointer with 2:33 left that cut Garfield's deficit to a point.

Sophomore Terion Chapman scored a team-high 11 points for the Rams. Senior Elliott Jackson grabbed six rebounds.

Said Thompson, "We talk about, 'We before me.' It's on the back of our shirts. Some of these guys are being very selfless because they could be crying about scoring more points or whatever, but they wanted the victory more."

Senior Drew Gullett hit four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 14 points for Lake, which went up 40-36 on back-to-back Gullett 3s with 3:45 left.

The Blue Streaks (6-18) never scored again as they missed on a chance to make their first district tournament since 2018.

"We had a couple of costly turnovers there and they hit some big shots, so credit to them," Lake head coach Tom McBride said. "I thought we had some looks there at the end, just maybe a little late on the execution and we didn't get a chance at that last shot."

What kind of season was it for Lake? Casenhiser missed the first nine games with a foot injury. In his first game back, the sharp-shooting Gullett broke his nose and didn't return until the penultimate game of the regular season.

"We've really only had about 11 practices where we were a full team this year," McBride said. "I thought four weeks ago we kind of went with the plan to work the match-up zone and keep ourselves in it a little bit better defensively. I thought we did the things we needed to do to give the kids a chance to win."

The 6-foot Casenhiser, a four-year varsity player, finishes his career with a school record 1,301 points.

"I hope someone takes a chance on him," McBride said of Casenhiser's college future. "I don't think anyone puts the individual effort and energy into their game in the offseason in high school like he does. It's a tribute to himself that he's made himself into the player and scorer that he is."

For the Rams, their 13 wins are their most in more than 20 years. Before Wednesday's sectional semifinal win against Riverside, they hadn't earned a postseason victory of any kind since 2007.

They're writing new history.

And they get more opportunities to do so.

"It's more practices. More time with my guys," Thompson said. "I keep telling them, 'Want to put the jersey on another day.'"

Reach Josh at josh.weir@cantonrep.com

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This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ohio high school boys basketball Akron Garfield vs. Lake sectional