BOYS BASKETBALL Boardman is Wired up for season-opening win

A stronger Chris Wire helped the Spartans forget about last year's struggles.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- Last year, Boardman's 6-foot, 7-inch senior should have been the starting center for the Spartans' junior varsity team.
Instead, Chris Wire was thrown into the varsity mix after two of Boardman's big men quit the team.
Wire took his lumps along with the rest of the Spartans, who suffered through their worst season, finishing with a 3-18 record.
This year was a different story as a much stronger Wire scored 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked six shots to lead Boardman to a season-opening 60-43 win over visiting Niles.
"Chris is physically much stronger this year," said Boardman coach Dan Gorski. "He's worked really hard at putting weight on after being thrown into the fire last year."
Senior leadership
Two other Spartan seniors who labored through last year's tough season also had big games against the Red Dragons.
Forward Jay Davis scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while guard Mike DeOnofrio added 13 points.
But it was DeOnofrio's effort on defense that had Gorski smiling after the game.
The 6-1 guard's assignment was to stop Niles' Dan Jones -- one of the top scorers in the area.
DeOnofrio did an outstanding job in the first half, holding Jones to five points. Boardman also held Niles to just 13 points in the first half.
"We've worked hard all summer on conditioning in order to play defense better," Gorski said. "We feel we have to score off of our defense to be a good team."
Boardman used a full-court trapping defense most of the game, which forced Niles into committing 10 first-half turnovers.
Offensively, Wire hit his first seven shots of the first half and made 8-of-9 -- along with a slam dunk before halftime -- as Boardman opened a 26-13 lead after two periods.
Davis' turn
In the second half, Niles tried to slow Wire, so Davis was able to work his magic in the paint for 12 second-half points.
"I was disappointed with our interior defense," said Niles coach Ron Price. "We didn't match up well and we did a poor job of rebounding all night."
Still, with Jones in the game, Niles tried to make a run in the second half.
Jones connected on four straight baskets in the fourth quarter to help pull the Dragons to within 10 (43-33) midway through the fourth period.
"We just couldn't get over the hump," Price said. "Every time we made a run they'd push the lead back out to 13 or 15 points.
"I thought if we could get it down to six or eight points, we had a chance."
Jones led Niles with 19 points, while Kevin Robertson chipped in with 10 points.
The Spartan had a 31-24 rebounding advantage.