Firestone senior Raybon Lewis compiled his first triple-double Friday night.
His timing was excellent, as he led Firestone to a 72-62 victory over rival Buchtel in the City Series boys basketball postseason final at the University of Akron’s Rhodes Arena.
Lewis totaled 18 points, 16 rebounds and 10 blocks as Firestone (14-6) beat Buchtel (10-9) for the second time in three meetings this season. The Falcons won the regular season percentage title and then hoisted the Coach Joe Siegferth Championship Trophy.
“It is a wonderful feeling to get a triple-double in the City game and come out with a victory with my team,” Lewis said after receiving the trophy and a first-place medal.
“We came out tonight and tried to take care of the ball as best as we could. We got out and ran, and played our game to come out of here with a W.”
Lewis and his teammates received their awards from Akron Public Schools athletic employees Joe Vassalotti, Ron Linger and Beth Johnson, and then the Falcons made their way to the baskets to cut down the nets. Firestone seniors Jaylin Moore, Isreal Spear and Kylan Richburg each used the word “amazing” when describing the victory.
“Since freshman year, I was thinking, ‘Wow, one day when I become a senior we are going to win the City championship,’ ” Richburg said. “Now, here we are and we won the City championship and it feels amazing.”
Falcons junior Tre’Maine Gray finished with 16 points, Moore scored 14 points, Spear had nine points and Richburg scored eight points. Junior Ricky Evans contributed five points and sophomore Justin Moore scored two points.
“I am very proud of the way we passed the ball,” Firestone coach Dave Milo said. “We hit the open man. We made the right passes and the kids did a great job. ... These guys enjoy playing [together] and are very unselfish. They are fun to watch.”
Firestone led 16-13 after one quarter, 36-24 at halftime and 55-40 after three quarters.
“Coach Milo told us that Buchtel loves to get second-chance points,” said Gray, who scored 12 points in the second quarter. “We knew we had to stop that, get rebounds and play defense to win the game.”
Buchtel was led by junior Dillon Henderson (13 points), senior Derrick Harvey Jr. (11 points) and sophomore Aamir Solomon (10 points). Senior Tyrice Pace and sophomore Isaiah Rogers added seven points apiece for the Griffins.
“We didn’t make shots when we needed to make shots,” Buchtel coach Stephen White said. “We talked to our players about stopping the ball. We do transition drills, and tonight they never stopped the ball. Raybon was getting the ball and taking off dribbling all the way down court, and by the time we picked him up he had too much of a head of steam.
“... We just couldn’t get over the hump as we tried to come back. I’m proud of our team though. We played a bunch of young kids this year. We have got 10 out of the 14 kids back and we will see what happens next year.”
Lewis won a City title as a freshman and ended with another as a senior.
“Raybon has got unlimited potential,” Milo said. “He is just an amazing ballplayer. He had games with 28 rebounds this year. The sky is the limit with him. If he was more selfish, he could probably be averaging 20 or 30 points a game, but he doesn’t care about points. He is so unselfish. As long as we win, he is happy.”
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the #ABJVarsity high school blog at www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.