Canfield slips past Howland

The Cardinals rallied in the final quarter for a 51-47 victory.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

HOWLAND — For three quarters Canfield looked just ordinary in its Metro Athletic Conference battle against Howland Wednesday night.

Then in the final quarter, the Cardinals started playing like the No. 5-ranked team in Division II, rallying from a seven-point deficit to pull out a 51-47 victory and retain the top spot in the conference standings.

The Cardinals (14-1, 9-0 MAC) outscored the host Tigers 19-8 over the final eight minutes to take a two-game lead over Howland (13-3, 9-2).

“That was probably the best second half of basketball we’ve played this year,” said Canfield coach Pat Pavlansky. “The first half was really sloppy, but Howland will make you play like that when they’re playing well like they were tonight.

“This game is always going to be a battle no matter where it’s played and John [Diehl] just does a great job with that program,” Pavlansky added.

The Cardinals, who trailed by as many as 10 points in the third quarter and trailed from the end of the opening quarter, regained the lead with 53.5 seconds remaining in the contest when Jillian Halfhill scored on a jump shot from the key to put Canfield ahead, 48-47.

Canfield added three more free throws over the final seconds, two by Bryanne Halfhill in the final two seconds, to put the game away.

Senior Kate Popovec led the Cardinals with 19 points, 13 of them in the second half, while Bryanne Halfhill added 12 and Melissa West tacked on 10.

Howland also had three players in double figures, led by Alexa Williams with 14, while Allie Airhart added 12 and Kelly Barzak had 10. Williams had 12 of her points in the first half.

“I thought the difference was Popovec tonight,” said Diehl. “We held her to 11 points at Canfield, but she had 19 tonight and was all over the court in the second half.

“When you dominate a game for three quarters it’s a game that you expect to win, but Canfield played very well over the final quarter and we didn’t,” he added.

“I thought Alexa [Williams] just dominated the game in the first half. She did just about anything she wanted out there, but Canfield did a good job on her in the second half,” he said.

The Tigers didn’t score a point over the final 3:22 of the contest and missed four free throws over that span.

Canfield led only once in the early going as Bryanne Halfhill hit a 3-point goal and Popovec and Kalie Luklan each added a basket for an 11-8 lead, but the Tigers came back and on a basket by Williams and another by Megan Long to take a 14-13 lead after the first quarter.

Howland extended its lead in the second quarter jumping out to a 20-15 lead and still led 26-18 with four minutes left in the half. But two Popovec baskets enabled Canfield to cut the lead to 28-22 at the intermission.

A basket by Airhart and a 3-point shot by Jessica Wilson gave Howland a 10-point lead (33-23) early in the third quarter, but Canfield outscored the Tigers 9-4 over the final six minutes and pulled to within five points 37-32. Popovec had seven of the Cardinals’ 10 points in the quarter.

Canfield still trailed by six points (40-34) with seven minutes remaining, but four points by West and Popovec cut the lead to two (40-38). Howland scored its final points on two free throws by Airhart with 3:22 left and the Cardinals took control the rest of the way.

mollica@vindy.com