Wildcats survive Chaney late rally

Struthers was able to weather the storm and make clutch free throws down the stretch.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Struthers High basketball team was poised to cruise home with an easy win after building a 50-28 lead at halftime against the Chaney Cowboys.
The game was far from over, however, and the Wildcats needed to regain that poise in the final minutes to hold off a furious second half rally by the Cowboys and secure a 76-75 victory.
Chaney outscored the Wildcats 20-9 in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 11 points heading into the final period and got as close as one point twice before falling.
Chaney's Evan Busch hit a 3-point shot in the closing seconds to pull Chaney within 76-75, but the clock ran out before Struthers could even inbound the ball.
Bothered by pressure
"After playing such a fundamentally sound first half, that second half was interesting to say the least," said Struthers coach John Corey. "Their pressure bothered us and we played out of control in the second half.
"We didn't have those fundamentals and discipline that got us that big lead in the first half."
Struthers (1-1) seemed to be able to score at will against the Cowboys in the first 16 minutes. The Wildcats scored 25 points in each of the first two quarters as they shot an incredible 19 of 33 (58 percent) from the field. Struthers owned the inside with senior Mike Duponty scoring 18 of his 26 points on easy inside baskets.
Center Chris Kadvan also had 10 of his 16 points while Matt Kukura lit it up from the outside to score 9 of his 11 points in the first two periods.
"We do have some offensive weapons if we can slow down the game," Corey said. "If we play helter-skelter basketball we kind of are playing against ourselves."
That's just what happened to Struthers at the start of the third quarter.
Halftime chat
"We had a nice halftime chat," said first-year Chaney coach Bernard Bohla. "The kids really picked it up defensively in the second half and we started to execute better on offense."
What the Cowboys did was slap a half-court trap defense on the Wildcats, who had trouble handling the Chaney quickness.
Struthers committed just five turnovers in the first half but turned the ball over eight times in the third quarter and had 22 turnovers for the game because of Chaney's intense defense.
The Cowboys turned that defense into 41 offensive shots in the final two periods and many of those shots found the bottom of the net.
Four Chaney players finished with 17 points or better to help get the Cowboys back in the game.
Antonio Fitzgerald finished with 18 including 10 in the final period while Busch added nine fourth quarter points and ended with 17 points.
Kory Jackson scored 17, as did Dominique Peake, who also pulled down 8 rebounds. Corey Council grabbed nine rebounds for the Cowboys.
"We weren't hitting our shots in the first half so we needed to hit the glass on both ends of the floor in order score points and we were able to do that," Bohla said.
Chaney outrebounded Struthers 39-27.
Struthers was able to weather the storm and made clutch free throws down the stretch.
Duponty hit 5 of 6 free throws and the Wildcats made 9 of 14 in the final quarter.