Friday, March 30, 2007
Tier One beat Tier Two in the boys and girls games.
By ERIC HAMILTON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
LISBON -- A pair of Crestview High basketball standouts shot their way into the spotlight Thursday night at the inaugural Inter Tri-County League all-star game at Lisbon High School.
The boys and girls contests pitted stars from Tier One against the best from Tier Two. The event also featured 3-point contests during halftime of both games.
In the opener, Elyse Mongillo scored a game-high 17 points and lost by one in the finals of the 3-point contest to lead Tier One to a 61-49 victory.
Crestview's Anthony Amabile followed up his classmate's success by scoring 21 points and helping the Tier One boys rally from a double-digit deficit en route to an 88-83 victory to give Tier One the sweep.
Rebel, Rebel
Amabile proved to be the best shooter of the event, hitting a combined total of 48 3-pointers, including 43 in the 3-point shootout. He defeated East Palestine's Jake Harvey 20-8 in the Tier One competition, then beat Western Reserve's John Porterfield 23-16 in the finals.
"I guess I was just in the zone tonight," Amabile said. "There was no defense in your face, so that helps out a lot. It was just fun coming out here and playing on the same team with guys you've played against since seventh grade.
"We knew coming in that the Lower Tier was a strong group, but we just pulled together there at the end and took it to them. It's a nice way to end my high school career and is something I can always remember."
Porterfield and McDonald's Bradley Hinton each scored 13 points in the opening half as Tier Two built a 50-40 advantage before halftime.
Rally
Falling behind by as many as 14 points, Tier One chipped away at the deficit in the second half. Amabile scored 12 of his team-high 21 points in the second half to lead the charge. He was aided by East Palestine duo Travis Foreman (15) and Dan Hanolt (18), who combined for 22 points after halftime.
Amabile tied the contest at 71-all with 7:05 remaining. Five minutes later, Hanolt put Tier One in front to stay 80-79 with a bucket. The lead got as big as seven points (86-79).
"We had them the whole game, but I guess they were just more determined," said Hinton, who hopes to continue his basketball career at Mount Union next winter. "I wanted to win, but it was fun to meet some other guys and play basketball.
"I was just trying not to think out there and let the game come to me. When you start thinking, you don't play as well. It was a good time."
Girls
Mongillo got Tier One off to a strong start with nine points in the first half. Her squad jumped out to a 17-4 advantage against Tier Two, which had trouble getting shots to fall. Tier One led 26-13 at intermission.
In the 3-point shootout, Mongillo continued her shooting touch, narrowly defeating Lisbon's Erica Sims 12-11 in the Tier One competition.
In the Tier Two contest, Lowellville's Kristen Pallozzi hit 12 3-pointers in the one-minute round to top Western Reserve's Lainey Kekic's seven triples.
In the finals, Pallozzi pulled out a 13-12 victory over Mongillo.
"It was a lot of fun, but the game was more fun," said Mongillo, who will play volleyball at Ohio Dominican next fall. "I played some AAU with a lot of these girls, but it was fun to play together again.
"We got way ahead in the beginning, but they came back and made it exciting at the end. You can tell we were out of shape from not playing for a while, but it was still fun."
Tier Two trailed by double digits most of the contest, but stepped it up in the second half. Jackson-Milton's Carrie Fiol provided the spark with four minutes left, hitting a field goal to cut the deficit to 46-39.
About a minute later, she drilled a 3-pointer to bring Tier One within 48-44 at the 3:02 mark of the second half.
But that's as close as Tier Two got, as Tier One went on an 11-2 run and outscored their counterparts 13-5 the rest of the way to secure the win.
Mongillo led all scorers with 17 points. Tier Two was paced by Kekic's 14 points.
SUMMARIES
GIRLS
TIER ONE 61, TIER TWO 49
TIER TWO -- Emily Ramsey 3-1-7, Carrie Fiol 2-0-5, Kristen Pallozzi 1-1-4, Alyssa Krumpak 2-0-4 Lainey Kekic 7-0-14, Jacque Schrader 2-0-4, Jessica Balent 2-0-5, Elizabeth Hughes 1-0-2, Valery Goerig 2-0-4. Totals: 22 2-8 49.
TIER TWO -- Elyse Mongillo 8-1-17, Jennie Allison 2-0-4, Julie Simmons 3-0-6, Chelsea Green 1-0-2, Erica Sims 3-2-8, Krista Johnson 1-5-7, Allison Graham 4-1-9, Caitlin Glenn 3-2-8. Totals: 25 11-21 61.
Tier One2635--61
Tier Two2326--49
3-point goals: Tier TWo 3 (Fiol, Pallozzi, Balent); Tier One 0.
BOYS
TIER ONE 88, TIER TWO 83
TIER ONE -- Dan Hawout 3-0-7, David Maxwell 1-0-3, Jake Harvey 2-0-5, Travis Foreman 7-1-15, Cory Guy 6-0-12, Brandon Kekel 3-0-7, Anthony Amabile 7-2-21, Dan Hanolt 8-1-18. Totals: 37 4-10 88.
TIER TWO -- Bradley Hinton 11-0-23, David Drevna 2-0-4, Jon Williams 2-0-4, Nick Cataldo 4-0-11, Nick Puckett 2-1-7, John Porterfield 6-0-15, Jeremy Gruber 1-0-2, Nick Rusinowski 3-0-8, Mario Nero 3-0-9. Totals: 34 1-5 83.
Tier14048--88
Tier 23053--83
3-point goals: Tier Two 14 (Nero 3, Cataldo 3, Porterfield 3, Puckett 2, Rusinowski 2, Hinton); Tier One 10 (Amabile 5, Hawout 1, Maxwell 1, Harvey 1, Kekel 1, Hanolt 1).