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McDonald cruises to a 20-0 record
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McDonald's Tom Orr and Springfield's Todd Kibby go for the tip off at McDonald.
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David John of McDonald reacts at end of Tuesday game where Blue Devils beat Springfierld for a20-0 record. Coach Jeff Rasile is at left.
By Pete Mollica
The Blue Devils’ second half splurge was too much for Springfield, as they went on to beat the Tigers 71-35.
MCDONALD — McDonald High boys basketball coach Jeff Rasile knew that once the ball started to fall for his Blue Devils, things would be all right.
Tuesday night the Blue Devils struggled through the first half with poor shooting, but in the second half they made most everything they threw up at the basket and rolled to a 71-35 win over Springfield to wrap up an undefeated season.
McDonald (20-0) held just a one-point lead at intermission against the Tigers (11-9, 9-6), but they outscored Springfield 49-14 in the second half to win going away.
“The difference in the two halves was that we made the shots in the second half,” said Rasile. “We’ve been struggling somewhat with our shooting of late, but these kids just kept working hard every day to overcome it.”
Senior Lance Ronghi was a good example of the team’s shooting. Ronghi didn’t score a point in the first half and missed all seven of his shots from the field, but scored a team-high 16 points in the second half including four 3-point goals to spark the attack.
“The coach has been very patient with me and he’s encouraged me to just keep shooting,” said Ronghi.
Rasile said that he didn’t think the pressure of an undefeated season had any effect on the team’s first-half shooting.
“This team doesn’t think like that,” Rasile said. “They couldn’t care less who they are playing or what’s on the line; they just want to go out and play and beat whoever’s out there.”
Ronghi somewhat disagreed.
“I’ve been thinking about that [undefeated season] all day today and I just wanted to get this over with,” he added.
Ronghi had plenty of support as senior Tom Orr added 14 points and sophomore Justin Tora chipped in with 12.
The Blue Devils’ offense also sparked the defense in the second half as they held the Tigers to just two field goals in the final 16 minutes and without a field goal over the final 10 minutes of action.
“I’m just so proud of this group and what they’ve accomplished this year,” Rasile said.
Springfield head coach Grant Spaite felt his team just never took advantage of its opportunities, especially in the first half.
“We were right with them going into the first few minutes of the third quarter, but we just made too many turnovers and missed so many layups,” he said. “A missed layup is just like another turnover.”
“Once they started knocking down shots from everywhere we had no answer for them,” he added.
The Tigers jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the opening period, but that gap was closed to 8-7 on a 3-pointer by Rota just before the buzzer.
The contest was deadlocked four times in the second quarter before Orr made one of two free throws in the final seconds to give McDonald a 22-21 edge at intermission.
The Tigers were still within four points 28-24 with 4:35 left in the third quarter, but Ronghi hit a pair of 3-pointers and Tora added two baskets and the lead quickly bloomed to 39-29.
Springfield scored its final field goal with 2:34 left in the third quarter and although it shot 16 free throws the rest of the way, it made only seven. The Blue Devils added three more 3-pointers, two back-to-back by Ronghi and just kept pulling farther and farther ahead.
The Blue Devils hit just nine of 28 shots in the first half, but connected on 17 of 35 in the second half. Springfield made just 9 of 38 shots for the game and two of 15 in the second half.