Newton Falls clinches a tie

The Tigers beat Champion 59-47 and need a win
Friday for the outright
TAC title.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

NEWTON FALLS — Newton Falls clinched at least a tie for the final Trumbull Athletic Conference boys basketball championship Tuesday night with a 59-47 victory over Champion.

“What I was happy with, when I came in the locker room, there was no celebration or dancing going on,” Tigers (14-3, 11-0) coach Roy Sembach said. “This team is focused and they want to try to win this championship outright. They are thinking ahead to Friday. If we win Friday, the championship will be all ours. It was one of our major goals at the start of the season, to be the last TAC-8 champions. We’re close now, we have to finish the job.

“I thought going into league play that there was a very good chance three losses could win this league outright. It’s a very good league, and to be undefeated after 11 games is a major surprise. I’m not surprised we’re contending, I’m not surprised we have a chance to win the league, but to be 11-0 in this league is surprising.”

The Tigers never trailed but led only 15-14 after one quarter and 29-24 at halftime. The lead reached 14 (43-29) in the third quarter, but Champion closed to within 45-38 at the end of the period. The Tigers scored the first eight points of the last quarter to re-establish control.

Sembach said the Tigers used the same game plan that worked in a 55-49 win over the Golden Flashes earlier in the season.

“We pretty much do what we do against most teams. For the most part we worry about taking care of ourselves,” he said. “They didn’t shoot the three as well as they did the first time, but then again, I thought they got to the hole a little bit better.

“Champion probably has the most offensive firepower in the league, they are a very dangerous team because they can explode at any moment. I thought we did a pretty good job getting out on the three-point shooters and making them shoot a little quicker, a little off-balance.”

Champion coach Dan Bubon cited the Flashes’ shooting woes. Champion shot 32 percent (19-for-60) from the field.

“We never scored enough. We held them to 59, that’s good enough to win, but you’re not going to beat them with 47,” he said. “We executed better than the first time we played. We got the ball inside, we got the ball in to the elbow, we got the ball in great positions, and we just couldn’t finish the play. We would miss or turn the ball over. You only get so many chances. I’m pretty pleased with our execution, it’s just finishing the plays, making the shots that we didn’t do.”

Newton Falls was led by senior guard Cameron McCleary who had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Nik Kaley contributed 11 points and nine rebounds, Jae Leeworthy had 12 points, Marcus Fowler had seven points and five blocked shots and Ian Webb came off the bench with seven points and three rebounds, all in the first half when Fowler sat with foul trouble.

Joe Cvengros had 13 points for Champion (12-5, 6-5), Derek Sumner had 11 points and five steals and Sean Sumner scored 10 points. Caleb Wright grabbed eight rebounds and, along with Kris Wildman, did an excellent job inside battling Fowler (6-foot-11) and Webb (6-foot-6).