Furious finish by Liberty falls short at Canfield High

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CANFIELD -- The Canfield High boys basketball team held off a furious last-minute rally by Liberty to edge the Leopards 58-57 in a non-conference game Tuesday night at Canfield.
The Cardinals (3-1) held a nine-point lead after Brian Fox's basket gave Canfield a 55-46 lead with 38.8 seconds left in the contest.
Liberty (5-1) then rallied behind back-to-back 3-point baskets by Mychal Doblanski and Justin Barker to cut the lead to 55-52 with 19.1 ticks on the clock.
Clutch free throws
Three clutch free throws by Canfield's Mike Hoelzel around a basket by Liberty's Jason White gave Canfield a 58-54 lead with 10.2 seconds left.
White again drilled a 3-pointer with about four seconds left to cut the margin to one point but Liberty was out of timeouts and Canfield didn't have to inbound the ball to earn the victory.
"They played the clock very well," said Canfield coach John Cullen. "We didn't do a good job of playing the clock well although I did think we did a good job with breaking the press and making our foul shots down the stretch."
Canfield made 8 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter and Hoelzel was clutch from the line as he knocked in 5 of 6 -- all in the last minute of the contest.
Hoelzel finished with 11 points.
"Both teams played hard for 32 minutes," said Liberty coach Burt Stellers. "I'm proud of our effort.
"Both teams got after it," Stellers said of the playoff intensity displayed on the court. "This was what high school basketball is all about."
Lived up to billing
The teams each featured a pair of terrific players that lived up to their billing as offensive standouts.
Canfield's Sean Baker tallied 17 points, including 14 in the second half, while Joe Carbon chipped in with 16.
Mychal Doblanski, who is averaging 24.8 points per game, scored 25 points to lead Liberty while White added 17.
"Our game plan was to hold Doblanski and White in check," Cullen said. "We did a good job of that by getting a hand in their face in the first half but we didn't do as well in the second half."
Doblansky scored 13 points in the final period and White nine points down the stretch to lead the comeback effort.
Cullen said that both teams played an attacking style on offense that yeilded success.
"We attacked the basket and got layups," Cullen said. "They attacked the basket and got fouled."
Liberty got to the foul line 28 times and made 19.
Canfield was able to take advantage of their passing skills that led to many easy baskets and slowly built a lead over the Leopards.
Carbon had the hot hand in the first half as he dropped in nine points as Canfield built leads of 12-8 after one quarter and 22-15 at the break.
Leopards close gap
Liberty got back in the game by going on a 4-0 run at the end of the third quarter and opening the fourth period on a 8-4 run to pull to within a point at 38-37.
Baker had the hot hand from that point on as he tallied 10 points in the final quarter to push the lead back out to nine points.
"They did a nice job on us defensively in the first half but we hit some open shots in the second half to get back in the game," Stellers said. "It just wasn't enough."