Young Spartans, veteran Tigers in regional

Boardman, with Courtney Schiffauer the only senior among the top six
players, faces Akron Kenmore tonight.

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

BOARDMAN — Asked if this year’s Boardman girls basketball team is one of the best squads he’s had in 28 years of coaching, Spartans coach Ron Moschella said, “It’s one of my younger teams.”

The Spartans (17-7), champions of the Division I district tournament at Alliance High, start one senior (Michigan State-bound Courtney Schiffauer), two juniors (point guard Katie Fiffick and guard Emily Abraham) and two sophomores (Darryce Moore and Monica Touvelle). The first player off the bench is sophomore guard Doriyon Glass.

“I hate to compare teams,” said Moschella who will be coaching at the regional level for the fourth time since 2000. “This is one of the most athletic teams that I’ve had.

“Now, they don’t always do all that I ask them to,” Moschella said, “because they are young. But they are great kids.”

Tonight at 6:15, the Spartans will play Akron Kenmore (22-2) at the Canton Civic Center. Howland (21-3) plays Mayfield (19-4) in the second game. The winners return Friday night for the championship game and a trip to Columbus.

Boardman is hoping to recapture the magic of the 2005 season when Schiffauer was a freshman. Those Spartans won the regional and earned the only state tournament trip in the program’s history.

Schiffauer is the first Spartans’ starter to earn two regional appearances since Ashlee Russo, a member of the 2000 and 2001 squads.

“They’re players, they’re absolute warriors,” said Moschella of the similarities of Schiffauer and Russo. “Phenomenal.”

Moschella pointed out that his 2001 team charted the same course to Canton as this year’s team — beating Federal League champion Hoover in the district semifinal and Canton McKinley in the final.

“It was the exact same scenario as Ashlee Russo’s junior season,” Moschella said.

After losing twice to Hoover in the regular season, Boardman jumped out to a 17-point fourth-quarter lead against Hoover last Thursday, then hung on for a 38-37 victory. The game came 19 days after Hoover blew out the Spartans, 69-42, on the same court.

Moore scored 21 points to lead the Spartans, who limited Hoover’s top seniors, Brittany Orban and Kyle Baumgartner, to nine and three points.

Saturday, Boardman trailed McKinley by seven at the half before rallying for a 52-46 victory.

“It was nerve-wracking,” said Schiffauer of the physical contest with the Lady Pups. The Spartans split two regular-season games with McKinley.

“This one was different,” Schiffauer said. “Both teams were playing hard to keep their season going.”

With seven losses, Boardman’s record is a bit deceiving. Four of the teams Boardman played have received national recognition.

“We played a really hard schedule,” Schiffauer said. “We had four nationally-ranked teams on our schedule.

“The teams we played at Pickerington and Berlin Hiland helped us out a lot,” Schiffauer said. “We might not have won but [playing them] just made us better in the end.”

Howland-Mayfield

Coach John Diehl of Howland said that Mayfield has two good players — an accurate, quick-shooting guard and a 6-2 post player who can score and rebound — but that his team, led by Lehigh-recruit Alexa Williams, is ready for the challenge.

Williams is coming off an outstanding performance in Howland’s 50-38 win over Shaker Heights last Saturday in a district final in Solon. She had 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, and Kelly Barzak contributed 15 points as the Tigers outscored Shaker Heights in the final quarter, 20-10, to break open a close game

“Alexa Williams was 7-for-8 from the foul line in the last quarter. We got the ball inside to her and they fouled her and she made them. She had 11 points in that quarter,” said Diehl, who is in his fifth regional tournament as a Howland coach — his fourth as girls coach for 14 years after having his first as boys coach for nine years.

Last year, Howland lost to Rayen in district final.

williams@vindy.com

XVindicator sports reporter John Kovach contributed to this story.