Canfield buckles down, tops Salem

The Cardinals’ second-half defense proved to be the
difference.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

CANFIELD — Salem High boys coach Will Klucinec knew what was in store for the Quakers in the second half of their game with Canfield Tuesday night.

Klucinec was a former player for Canfield’s John Cullen and he knew that the veteran coach would turn up the defense a few notches after Salem played well enough in the first half to trail by just five points.

The Cardinals (15-2, 11-1) did just that and only allowed Salem to score six points in the first 13 minutes, 33 seconds of the second half in a 55-37 victory over the Quakers.

Klucinec however, didn’t expect the Cardinals to totally shut down his Quakers in the second half after his team played well enough to challenge Canfield in the first two periods.

“They turned up the intensity up on defense in the second half,” said Klucinec. “John Cullen-coached teams do that. They know how to play half-court defense.

“I was part of that here [as a player] and I thought our guys were prepared to handle it.”

Cullen said he wasn’t very pleased with his team at halftime.

When asked if he challenged his team at the break, Cullen said, “that’s a nice way of putting it.”

“We turned up the gas a little bit in the second half,” said Cullen. “We wanted to do that in the first half but our biggest fault was human nature.

“We probably played our best game of the year against them the first time and our kids didn’t take Salem serious enough at first.”

The Quakers (9-8, 4-8), who lost to Canfield 73-34 on Jan. 11, opened up a 9-2 lead and that forced Cullen to take an early timeout.

The Cardinals regrouped behind a 3-point basket by Matt Keating and three baskets by Brian Fox to grab a 13-11 lead at the end of the first period.

Salem hung tough the entire second period behind five points by Jordan Strabala and were deadlocked with Canfield at 25-25 with a 1:54 left before the break.

Two turnovers and baskets by Andrew Zunic and Fox along with a free throw gave Canfield a 30-25 lead at halftime.

“We need to learn how to close out quarters,” said Klucinec. “That late swing cost us and gave Canfield a lot of momentum heading into the second half.”

Momentum and a stern lecture from Cullen was more than enough to secure a strong second half effort.

The Cardinals shot only 4-of-11 from the floor in the third quarter but they harassed Salem into 10 turnovers, blocked three shots and held the Quakers to just four points to open up a 40-29 lead.

Canfield pushed the lead out to 48-31 on a basket by Fox with 2:47 left in the contest. Fox scored 13 points on the night and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.

Keating led all scorers with 14 points while John Manzoian finished with 10 points.

The win enables Canfield to travel to Poland Friday night to try to avenge its only league loss at the hands of the Bulldogs and grab a share of first place in the MAC.

Salem was led by Austen Hutton who scored 11 points while Strabala added nine.