Boardman's defense stops Cards, 49-37

By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BOARDMAN -- Boardman High girls basketball coach Ron Moschella says all good basketball teams play good defense and his Spartans lived up to the task Monday night with a 49-37 victory over Canfield.
Boardman (4-1) forced the Cardinals (2-2) into 17 turnovers and shut down Canfield's Kate Popovec with some good defensive moves.
"Anytime Boardman plays Canfield it is going to be an exciting basketball game," Moschella said. "It was two good teams going after each other and this time we got the best of them."
Best defensive effort
"This was our best defensive effort of the year," he added. "That's what made the game so exciting."
Canfield High head coach Pat Pavlansky agreed.
"Boardman played very well and did a great job defensively," he said. "It was the first time we had seen that defense and it gave us problems in the first half.
"Still we came back and cut the lead to four points in the third quarter and were within five points in the fourth quarter and we weren't playing very well. So we should be able to gain from this loss."
The Cardinals also lost Popovec for the final 6:43 of the contest as she fouled out.
Leading the Spartans
Boardman put three players in double figures, led by Courtney Schiffauer with 18 points. Colleen Mallis added 13 and April Melquist had 10.
Canfield's only player in double figures was Bryanne Halfhill with 13.
Neither team shot very well from the floor but the Spartans were deadly from the free throw, line hitting 21 of 28 attempts -- including 14 of 17 in the fourth quarter.
Canfield made 11 of 18 from the line.
Boardman only trailed twice in the contest and both of those came in the first quarter. It fell behind 3-0 before coming back to tie it at 3-3 and then trailed 5-4 before Kelly Haren scored to put the Spartans up for keeps, 6-5.
Leading 10-7, Boardman came up with three straight steals -- two by Mallis -- and took a 16-7 edge after one quarter.
Cardinals battle back
After Boardman pulled to a 28-18 lead at intermission, Canfield came out and scored the first six points in the third quarter, including a 3-point goal by Natalie Fox to close to within four points 28-24.
But the Spartans scored the final eight points of the quarter -- six from the charity stripe -- and were still in command 36-24 after three quarters.
Canfield answered with two baskets by Melissa West to pull within five, 38-33, with 3:30 remaining. But Boardman answered again with eight more free throws -- Schiffauer had three free throws and a basket over that stretch -- to put the game away.