Canfield's shooting halts Liberty 54-40

By GREG GULAS
Vindicator Correspondent
LIBERTY -- Mike Rounsavall registered a double-double and Canfield High placed three players in double figures as the Cardinals defeated the Liberty Leopards, 54-40 in a non-conference basketball game Tuesday night.
Rounsavall had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Kyle Melewski and Troy Gessner added 12 and 11 points, respectively, as the Cardinals (3-2) shot a sizzling 59 percent from the field (19-of-32).
The Leopards (2-2) managed to make just 14-of-42 field goal attempts (33 percent), making only six buckets in the first 16 minutes.
"We still made some silly mistakes that we need to work on, but overall we're starting to figure out what we need to do in order to win," said Canfield coach John Cullen.
"[Mike] Rounsavall to me is the best big guy in the area that runs the entire court," he added. "He's shooting almost 68 percent from the field and is excellent with both hands around the hoop. I'll take his overall solid play over a great play that another player makes every now and then."
Joe Carbon had five points in the first quarter to lift the Cardinals (3-2) to a 16-7 lead.
Cardinals build lead
Gessner then scored seven of his 11 points in the second period as Canfield built a 30-19 lead at the intermission and never really looked back. The Leopards managed just six buckets in 22 attempts from the field in the first half.
"We tried out best to get them to take bad shots," said Cullen. "Both [Edward] Kershaw and [Mychal] Doblanski are hard to stop offensively. You can only hope to limit them offensively and we were able to do just that that tonight."
Kershaw scored nine of his game-high 22 points in the third quarter for Liberty, but Melewski added seven as Canfield led 46-35 heading into the final quarter.
"We didn't get the looks that we wanted from the field, but credit Canfield for our misfortune," said Liberty coach Burt Stellers. "We were in the same situation last December. We'll take a few days off, come back and address the things that we need to work on and we'll be just fine.
"Rebounding was a point of emphasis for us before the game, yet we didn't do a good job in that area tonight," he added.
"Canfield did an excellent job on us defensively," said Stellers. "We need to knock down more of our open looks, however, and have better shot selection if we expect to win games like this. We'll continue to work on those two areas during our down time."
Carbon's four points helped Canfield to an 8-5 scoring advantage in the final frame to seal the victory.
Rebounding edge
Canfield held a 30-20 advantage on the boards, with Gessner adding six rebounds for the Cardinals. John Humphrey's seven rebounds were high for the Leopards.
Canfield made 3-of-7 shots from beyond the arc while the Leopards were just 3-of-11 from 3-point range.