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Cameron Black collected 17 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocked shots as Kent Roosevelt shocked top-seeded Twinsburg 49-46 in the Copley Division I District semifinals.

COPLEY TWP. -- Northeast Ohio Conference schools are finding out its tough to beat a motivated Portage Trail Conference team with a chip on its shoulder.

Seventh-seeded Kent Roosevelt shocked No. 1 Twinsburg 49-46 on Thursday night and in doing so polished off its third NOC opponent in as many games at the Copley Division I District.

The Rough Riders (17-6) will meet Akron East (16-6) for the district title Saturday at 7 p.m. at Copley-Fairlawn High School.

“We wanted some respect. We proved we can play with the big boys,” Roosevelt senior post Cameron Black said registering a monster game with 17 points, 13 rebounds, eight blocked shots and four assists.

The 6-foot-9 Bowling Green State recruit won his matchup with Twinsburg's star Jonathan Harris, a 6-foot-8 senior forward committed to Miami of Ohio.

Harris finished with 11 points and, other than a breakaway jam late in the contest when the Tigers whittled Roosevelt's lead from 43-34 to 47-46, had a quiet game.

Black, the son of head coach Cameron Black, sank two critical free throws with 17.2 seconds left and the Tigers missed three shots to tie in the final seconds.

Kent Roosevelt took advantage of the Tigers' cold shooting and worked the ball inside to Black and fellow senior Marcus Wright to build an 18-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. Black and Wright both scored six points in the quarter. Meanwhile the Rough Riders used a box-and-one defense to bottle up Harris and his teammates.

Twinsburg started to wake up offensively in the second quarter as senior Doug Talentino, senior Brandon-Croom Francisco and Harris scored, and the Tigers outscored Roosevelt 16-8 to trail 28-22 at the half.

The third quarter saw Kent Roosevelt maintain its six point lead as both teams scored 10 points in the quarter. Harris scored seven points for Twinsburg to keep Kent Roosevelt from increasing its advantage. Zach Brett’s three pointer helped keep the Rough Riders in front 38-32 to end the third quarter.

It was a wild fourth quarter as Kent Roosevelt extended its lead to 45-36 on a lay-up by Wright. But Twinsburg countered with a three by Josh Edmondson and a jam by Harris on a steal, and went on a 7-0 run to close the deficit to 45-43 with just over a minute left.

That’s when Black would win the game at the foul line. His first two foul shots were good, putting the Rough Riders up 47-43. Twinsburg’s Edmondson then buried another three with 38 seconds remaining, to cut the Roosevelt lead to a single digit, 47-46. Black was fouled again and calmly stepped to the line and sank two more charity tosses with 17.2 seconds remaining.

Twinsburg’s season ended on three missed long-range attempts as time expired.

Marcus Wright was Kent Roosevelt’s second leading scorer with 14.

Edmondson led Twinsburg, champions of the NOC River Division, with19 points.

Black outlined Roosevelt’s successful offensive strategy. “ The key for us was to get the ball in Cam’s hands in the post, then if that wasn’t working we had Marcus (Wright) on the back side. Our guards were very, very patient with that tonight.”

Twinsburg coach Bob Pacsi says his team spent most of the game trying to make up for the big first-quarter deficit..

“They got off to a great start and we found ourselves back on our heels after the first quarter, down by 12 against a good team that’s got size and good perimeter shooting.. It was a scramble, but we kept fighting. They (Roosevelt) played pretty intelligent. They made some free throws, and they kept the ball away from us, they ran their stall, they just played harder. They outplayed us.”

Warren G. Harding 60, Garfield Heights 59 (2OT)

SOLON -- Two teams that began the season with dreams of playing in Columbus at the state semifinals met in a Division I district semifinal sure to be talked about for years to come.

Both teams came in wounded having lost a key player to injury. Both came in determined to extend their season.

Warren G. Harding (18-4) trailed 45-40 as the fourth quarter began and managed to outscore the Bulldogs 10-5 over the final eight minutes of regulation to force extra time.

Kennis White pumped in 23 points to lead WGH. Shaheed Davis with 15 points and Tre Brown with 11 provided ample support.

Trey Lewis paced Garfield Heigts (15-8) with a game-high 24 points.