Canfield defeated 54-45 by GlenOak

Boardman fell to Massillon in the other Division I
contest.

By RYAN JONES

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

CANTON — Trailing 24-22 at the half to Canton GlenOak, the Canfield High boys basketball team went on a 10-4 run to start the third period and went ahead by 32-27 in a Division I boys sectional basketball game Tuesday at the Canton Civic Center.

It appeared that Canfield had found some offensive rhythm, but the Cardinals mustered only 11 points in the final period-and-a-half and stumbled to Canton GlenOak, 54-45, in the second game of the night.

In the opener, Boardman experienced a long scoring drought and was a 51-41 loser to Massillon Washington.

Most of Canfield’s problems arose from the Golden Eagles 2-3 zone and point guard C.J. McCollum, who netted 30 points.

Massillon Washington (7-14) advanced to play Canton Timken (20-0) on Friday at 8:30 p.m., while GlenOak (14-7) will play Saturday at 7:30 against the winner of tonight’s Lake-Jackson game.

Canfield (16-4) coach John Cullen said his team knew defending McCollum was going to be a challenge.

“We tried to deny the ball back to him, and we tried to face him up,” he said. “He’s really good at creating space to get off his shot. He’s [McCollum] made 63 threes on the season and Sutton made 62, so you can’t help off of those guys much defensively.”

Cullen said GlenOak’s 2-3 zone kept the Cardinals from establishing their inside game.

“They focused on taking away our post players,” he said. “When we got it inside we got some good looks but didn’t finish them.”

Trailing 32-27 GlenOak spread Canfield out and attacked the basket. Storm Sanders swung the momentum back to the Golden Eagles when he assisted on teammate Jimmy Darnley’s lay-up and converted a three-point play to tie the game at 32.

“He’s [Sanders] a game changer,” Cullen said. We had trouble containing him off the dribble when they spread us out. With Sutton and McCollum out there you can’t offer much help, so our defensive rotations were limited.”

Canfield clawed to within 48-45 after Mike Podolsky hit a 3-pointer from the wing, but on the ensuing inbounds Dom Rich was hit with a technical foul for interfering with the pass.

“I don’t blame Dom. It was at a point in the game when he had to foul, and he lost track of where he was on the court and didn’t realize that he had crossed over the line when he made contact with the ball,” said Cullen about the technical foul that occurred with about 25 seconds.

From there, McCollum hit those two technical foul shots and added four more free throws to finish the scoring.

Podolsky led Canfield with 14 points and Matt Keating added 12. John Manzoian contributed seven rebounds and five assists.

In the Boardman-Massillon game, the Spartans were ahead 25-22 at the half but struggled to score only four third-quarter points while the Tigers surged ahead to a 29-27 lead.

A basket by Dan Kubala with 3:40 left in the third period that tied the game at 29-29 was the last basket the Spartans scored until the 1:26 mark of the fourth quarter, which pulled them with 44-31.

Boardman (8-13) coach Jim Goske said that during the Spartans’ scoreless streak that, “It wasn’t that were weren’t getting scoring opportunities. We attacked and moved the ball well, but didn’t finish our plays. I thought that were weren’t mentally sharp to start the second half.”

The Spartans committed 25 turnovers which could be blamed primarily on Massillon’s defensive pressure.

“I though the difference in the game was their pressure defense,” he said. “It bothered us throughout the game. You can’t go out and turn it over as many times as we did and expect to win.”

Boardman played without its leading scorer, Devron Martin, who hyper-extended his knee in last Sunday’s practice. He averages 14 points a game.

Massillon was led by Dorie Irvin with 21 points and six rebounds while Justin Turner had 13 and seven steals.

Boardman’s leader was Ryan Pesta with 11 points while J.T. Moore had 10 rebounds and five points.