The Kirtland Hornets boys’ basketball team defeated the Grand Valley Mustangs in a recent Division VI regional semifinal match-up.
The two teams met up at the Canton Memorial Civic Center with Kirtland coming out on top 79-58.
With the loss, Grand Valley ended their season at 21-5.
Kirtland improved to 23-3 on the year and advanced to play Richmond Heights.
Richmond Heights is coming off of a 68-58 win over Andrews Osborne to advance to the regional final.
Lucas Renfro dominated throughout the game for the Hornets with 30 points.
The Hornets also received balanced scoring from both Jake Laverde and Ben DiFranco who each scored in double figures.
Laverde finished the game with 16 points, while DiFranco added ten points.
Kirtland was able to build a big halftime lead and never looked back.
The Hornets doubled up the Mustangs 22-11 in the opening quarter.
It was more of the same in the second quarter as Kirtland outpaced Grand Valley 21-13 to take a 43-24 lead going into halftime.
Grand Valley tried to battle back in the third quarter, but Kirtland rallied towards the end of the quarter as both teams put up 20 points.
The Hornets went on to outscore the Mustangs 16-14 in the final quarter for the 79-58 win.
Solomon Schultz led the Mustangs with 24 points in the loss. Carter Turk added 13 points and 11 rebounds for Grand Valley.
Turk surpassed 1,000 points in his career during the Mustangs win over Warren JFK in the district championship game.
Cooper Plizga added eight points, while Payton Plizga added seven points.
Rounding out the scoring for Grand Valley were: Sam Mazzei two points, Hunter Doing two points, Liam Hart one point and Parker Zupancic one point.
Rounding out the scoring for Kirtland were: Sammy Ridgeway eight points, Michael Dumstroff six points, Danny Shafer five points, and Ryan Caimi four points.
