Malvern topples Campbell

The Red Devils couldn’t contend with the Hornets’ height and lost 88-80.

By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

NORTH CANTON — Before the start of Sunday’s game against state-ranked Malvern, someone walked up to Campbell High boys basketball coach Brian Danilov and said, “Don’t call any timeouts. I want to get back in time to watch the NFC Championship.”

“Who’s playing?” Danilov said, arching his eyebrows. “We’re playing the fourth-ranked team in the state. I got enough to worry about.

“When one of those [NFC] teams starts rebounding for me, I’ll worry about that game.”

Alas, no one did. The Red Devils have managed to work around their size issues for much of the season, but it caught up to them against the bigger Hornets, who held a 33-26 edge on the boards and shot extremely well from, well, everywhere

“If you could find me a big man, I’d be happy,” said Danilov following the 88-80 loss in the Pizza Oven Classic at Hoover High School. “They shot the ball really well and they killed us on the boards.”

Jermaine Richardson was the best player on last year’s district title team, but his graduation hasn’t hurt Campbell nearly as much as losing the 6-foot-8 Tommy Hall, who gave the Red Devils an inside presence to help with rebounding and shot blocking.

Campbell senior forward Anthony Moses, who at 6-4 is the only Campbell regular over 6-2, did what he could on Sunday, but he was no match for Malvern seniors Trevor Halter (6-5) and, especially, Zak Kapron (6-6).

Kapron finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds to lead Malvern (14-0), which shot 30-of-50 from the field (60 percent) and made its first 22 free throws.

Malvern finished 23-of-24 from the line, although the official line was 23-of-25 due to a lane violation. (The shot was never attempted.) The Hornets’ only miss came with 18 seconds left and the contest no longer in doubt.

“How about that, huh?” Danilov said.

When asked if he was concerned that miss might come back to haunt him, Malvern coach Dennis Tucci smiled and said, “Yeah, I was worried about that.”

Halter added 21 points and crossed the 1,000-point mark for his career early in the fourth quarter. Junior Tyler Tucci, who had 24 points, surpassed 1,000 earlier in the season and Kapron is only about 50 away, giving the Hornets a very experienced — and very talented — core of players.

Still, Malvern was looking for a validating win. Although they’re state-ranked in Division IV, Tucci knew outsiders were still wondering if his team was for real.

“I think we did need some validation,” he said. “We beat these teams all summer long, but it’s like when a tree falls in the forest. Nobody knows about it.

“I think beating a 10-2 Campbell Memorial squad helped.”

Sophomore Jerah’me Williams, a starter on last year’s team, did everything he could to keep the Red Devils close, scoring 27 points — including six 3-pointers. He scored 13 points in the fourth quarter as Campbell whittled a 13-point deficit with three minutes left down to five with about a minute left.

But since Malvern refused to miss free throws, there wasn’t much Campbell could do.

Sophomore Nate Hodge also played well for Campbell, scoring 23 points with team-highs in rebounds (six), assists (four) and steals (three). Senior Antwan Dawson was the only other Red Devil in double figures, scoring 15 points.

“We still have work to do,” said Danilov, who, incidentally, used all five of his timeouts. “But this was a great tournament game and it’s going to get us ready for tournament time.”

scalzo@vindy.com