DIVISION I GIRLS REGIONAL Boardman's defense tops Mentor, 40-30

The Spartans will meet Stow in Friday's title game.
CANTON -- In their first regional appearance in four years, defense paid big dividends for the Boardman High School girls basketball team.
In a rematch of game 16 from the regular season, the Spartans upended Mentor, 40-30, in a Division I regional semifinal game Tuesday at the Canton Civic Center.
Friday at 7:30 p.m., Boardman will try to earn its first state-tournament berth when they play Stow, a 59-42 winner over Cleveland JFK.
"This team plays for each other," Boardman coach Ron Moschella said. "We went high-low on them and did a good job defensively."
The first time they played, Boardman won a tight contest, 42-39.
Mentor arrived late
Mentor arrived late and the contest was delayed 15 minutes. Like its arrival, Mentor's shots were late making the basket all night as the Cardinals hit on just 4-of-15 shots and committed 12 turnovers in the first half.
Freshman Courtney Schiffauer sparked the Spartans right from the start, scoring five of the teams first seven points.
"It was really important for us to jump out with the lead, that's exactly what we did," Moschella said.
Mentor's Megan Skouby, who is headed to the University of Iowa, got the Cardinals on the board with a jumper from the free throw line with 3:44 remaining in the first quarter.
"We knew what Megan Skouby could do," Moschella said. "You didn't want to let her have her way around the hoop.
"Defensively Jessie Moore and April Melquist did exactly what we wanted them to do from the free-throw line in," Moschella said. "April read their offense well and Jessie played smart all night."
Mallis leads rally
Boardman junior Colleen Mallis, who is celebrating her birthday today, then scored 4-of-8 points as the Spartans built a 13-4 lead.
"Offensively I felt like I couldn't get in my rhythm," Mallis said. "Defensively, I felt I had a better effort against Mentor this time."
A Melquist layup with 55 seconds remaining in the half increased the Spartans' lead to 21-10, but a 3-pointer by Laura Canteri and a free throw by Kim Mueller of the Cardinals cut the lead to 21-14 at intermission.
"I wasn't happy with us offensively, so we put some new stuff in for the second half," Moschella said. "Credit freshman Courtney Schiffauer -- she took the ball to the basket all night and played a nice overall game."
Moore, who had a game-high 13 points, scored seven in the third quarter as the Spartans cruised 35-20 heading into the fourth period.
Biggest lead
A Moore layup at the 6:50 mark of the final quarter gave Boardman its largest lead of the game at 37-20.
The Cardinals (20-5), who wouldn't quit, scored 10 of the final 13 points of the contest, six of them on a pair of 3-pointers by Pam Quitney.
"We watched tapes of our first game with Mentor and had down what we needed to do," Moore said. "It's was easier the second time around as we tried to deny them everything inside. Our guards handled the pressure and April was great on the helpside all night."
Mentor coach Mark Chicone said, "We didn't shoot the ball that well tonight. In fact, we struggled the last of the season shooting.
"We knew we would see the matchup zone and they did an excellent job on us," Chicone said.
Good shooting
With 9-of-11 shooting in the first half, Boardman finished 17- of-39. The Spartans led the rebounding battle, 25-21.
Melquist came off the bench to pull down a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Cardinals connected on 11-of-31 shots and committed 21 turnovers.