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Canfield Red Division leader, for time being
CANFIELD — Casey Carroll sealed the deal for the Canfield High boys basketball team with a slam dunk with 30 seconds remaining in a 56-52 All-American Conference Red Division win over the Howland Tigers on Saturday night.
The win enabled Canfield (10-4, 3-0) to move into first place in the AAC Red Tier standings at least for a couple of days.
Part two of the Canfield-Howland saga continues on Tuesday night in Howland and if last night’s contest is any indication, the rematch should be just as entertaining.
Canfield coach John Cullen and Howland’s Don Andres both agreed that Tuesday’s encounter will be a “war.”
Following the victory over Howland, Carroll, who scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds, preferred to bask in the moment and enjoy the victory.
“[Jared Kirin] kept telling me all game that I couldn’t go in his house and stuff like that,” Carroll said. “I got that breakaway that last time and just rose up and threw it down.
“It felt good. As soon as they got me the ball I knew I was going to the hole.”
Canfield had opened up a 53-43 lead with two minutes left in the contest before Howland (9-5, 2-1) made a late charge to close the gap to three points, 53-50, on a basket by Kirin with 36 seconds left in the game.
The Cards broke the press and got the ball to Carroll who was leading the breakaway and put the contest away with a forceful two handed dunk.
“Kirin had been talking to Casey a little bit and had blocked a few of his shots but Casey got one more chance and put that one down,” said Canfield coach John Cullen. “Casey’s capable of that.
“There’s no doubt that Tuesday’s game will be much more of the same. It will be a war. We won’t even get a chance to wash our uniforms and we’ll be right back at it again at their place.”
Canfield looked like they might be in for an easy night against the Tigers as they opened up a 19-4 lead behind the hot shooting of Mike Podolsky.
The junior poured in 12 of his 22 points in the period as Canfield had the Tigers off balance from the start.
“The first quarter killed us and a few possessions in the third quarter killed us,” said Howland coach Don Andres. “There were three or four possessions in the third quarter when it was 33-33 where we turned the ball over and missed an easy shot.
“Once they got the lead we fought like dogs and outplayed them after that. Foul shooting killed us also.”
Howland fought its way back from the 15-point deficit behind the hot shooting of Kirin and Kyle Spence. The duo helped the Tigers outscore Canfield 17-7 in the second quarter.
Kirin’s 3-point shot with five seconds left before halftime cut the Canfield lead to 26-23.
Kirin finished with 18 points while Spence tallied 16.
After Howland regrouped to tie the score at 33-33 in the third Canfield regained control with its defense.
“I gotta give our guys credit,” Cullen said. “They were handing it to us there for a while but we stiffened up our backs and did a pretty good job of getting back in control.
“The only thing that made the score look worse was that we shot 8-for-17 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.”
Canfield regained control mostly with its defense and the offensive play of Podolsky and Justen Vrabel.
Vrabel had a strong second half as he scored eight of his 12 points when Canfield battled to get the lead back. The junior forward also led the Cards with eight rebounds.