BOYS BASKETBALL Struthers spills Chaney

The Wildcats recovered from a cold-shooting first half for the win.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Midway through the third quarter, Struthers coach Joe Fuline pulled senior Jason Martin aside during a time-out and told him, "Forget about what's happened so far, just play."
He did. Martin scored all of his game-high 17 points after that point, leading the Wildcats to a 69-50 win Tuesday night over Chaney at Chaney High School.
"I just kept playing and stopped thinking about it," Martin said. "My shooting has been bad all week. We finally started playing how we like to play."
Poor shooting: Struthers (3-1) shot poorly in the first half, hitting just 4-of-25 shots as Chaney (3-1) took a 22-15 halftime lead. But the Wildcats caught fire in the second half, connecting on 21-of-31 shots -- including 12 of 14 in the fourth quarter.
"I'll be honest, we couldn't shoot any poorer than we did in the first half," said Struthers coach Joe Fuline. "We just played basketball in the second half. We made great passes, we penetrated and we hit some shots."
Senior Jim Tabak scored 15 points for Struthers and Jason Mitchell added seven points and 14 rebounds.
Wildcat senior Jim Franceschelli -- the smallest player on the court -- had 10 points and five rebounds before leaving the game with a concussion with 2:41 left in the game after running into Chaney junior Keilen Dykes -- the largest player on the court.
Injury: Franceschelli fell to the floor and was sprawled out for more than 30 minutes until paramedics stabilized his neck and carried him out on a stretcher.
"It was probably a concussion," said Fuline. "He had full movement; he was just out of it."
Chaney senior Roy Austin led the Cowboys with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Chris Childers added five points and eight rebounds.
"We gave up too many second and third shots," said Chaney coach Jim Stickel, whose team was out-rebounded 42-32. "It was just lethargic play on our part."
Weak starts: Neither team played well offensively in the first half. Struthers didn't score until Franceschelli hit a 3-pointer at the 2:57 mark of the first quarter, but Chaney only led 4-3 at that point. The Cowboys, led by 10 first-half points from Austin, opened a 22-12 lead, but Shawn Hall hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
Chaney shot just 18-for-46, including 12-of-35 (34 percent) in the second half. The Cowboys were coming off a win over Boardman, in which they had wiped out a 10-point fourth quarter deficit.
"I'm searching for answers right now," Stickel said. "We did nothing right the entire game."
scalzo@vindy.com