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When Tony Rice, the leading scorer and emotional leader for Safe Auto, fouled out with more than seven minutes to play in the championship game of the McDonald's Summer League, Buckeye Corner coach Jason Hill expected Safe Auto to collapse under the pressure of not having its go-to player on the court.

The anticipated collapse never materialized.

Ron Kenley, O.J. Strother and P.G. Greene helped Safe Auto withstand the loss of Rice by combining to score the team's final 22 points in an 81-75 win over defending champion Buckeye Corner on July 21 at Worthington Kilbourne High School.

The win gave coach Johnny Clark his second title in the NCAA-sanctioned men's basketball league in three years.

"When you lose your best player at that point in the game, you have to be a little concerned, but we're not a young team," said Clark, whose team won the league title in 2003 under the name Greenscapes/Jump 25. "We have veterans, so I knew we'd be all right."

Rice, a 1992 Briggs High School graduate who played at Wagner College, a Division I school located on Staten Island, N.Y., fouled out with 7:35 left after being assessed a technical foul for arguing a personal foul that he committed against Ohio State guard Ron Lewis.

After Lewis made all four free throws, including the two technical shots, Buckeye Corner, which had trailed by as many as seven in the half, was down 59-58.

"When Rice fouled out, I thought that opened the door for us," Hill said. "But they made some big shots and made their free throws."

Buckeye Corner, which trailed most of the contest, took a 65-64 lead with 3:21 remaining on a 3-pointer by Lewis, but Safe Auto regained the lead on a three-point play by Kenley with 2:55 left and didn't trail again.

Rice scored a team-high 21 points, including 19 in the first half. Strother had 18 points, while Kenley and Karl Newman both added 13.

"My teammates are veterans and they hung together," Rice said. "They're all hard workers. When guys play hard, it's wonderful. ... We focus on defense. We take pride in playing defense, and that's what came through for us. I don't think they've seen that kind of defense."

Buckeye Corner played the contest with only five players. One of the key players missing from its lineup was former Pittsburgh forward Donatas Zavackas, who earlier in the day returned to his native Lithuania for a wedding.

"That was huge," Hill said. "We couldn't match up inside without Donatas. ... There was not much we could do. We just ran out of fouls."

The outcome of the game was sealed when former OSU center Matt Marinchick fouled out with 22 seconds left and Safe Auto leading 79-73. Buckeye Corner finished the contest with four players.

OSU guard J.J. Sullinger had 31 points to lead Buckeye Corner, which finished 10-3. Lewis, who sat out last season at OSU after transferring from Bowling Green, had 24 points, while former Buckeyes guard Tony Stockman added 14.

"The only thing that wasn't sweet about (defeating the defending champion in the championship game) was that Scoonie (Penn) wasn't there," Clark said, referring to the former OSU guard, who led Buckeye Corner to the championship last season but played for Union Savings Bank this summer.

"Without Scoonie, they're not the same team. We don't feel we beat the defending champs, but we feel we beat a good team. ... Even though they didn't have (Zavackas), we knew we'd have our hands full."

Like Buckeye Corner, Safe Auto, which finished 11-2, had to endure key players missing from its lineup. It played the entire season without NBA player Gary Trent, who led Greenscapes/Jump 25 to the championship in 2003, and had former Beechcroft standout Devin Green for only three games. Green averaged a team-high 27.7 points in his brief stint.

In addition, Safe Auto completed the tournament run without Isaac Jefferson. The former Columbus West standout averaged 11.5 points through 10 games but had to sit out the final three contests with a sprained right ankle.

"There probably were teams with arguably more talent, but I hand-picked this team because I knew we would have a good team with these guys," Clark said.

Meanwhile, Hill believes his players should be proud of the effort they gave to defend their title.

"To get back here (in the championship game) isn't easy," Hill said. "I can't expect any more than that."