East’s streak just got sweeter

By Tom Williams

The Panthers beat Mooney for their 4th straight win and earned a trip to Charlie Staples Bar-B-Q.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Steel Valley Conference road victory on top of another snow day made for a sweet Friday for the East High boys basketball team.

It’s about to get a whole lot sweeter.

“Coach told us if we won four in a row, we’d go to C. Staples [Bar-B-Q],” said Kenny Carter after the Panthers rallied for a 48-43 victory Friday over Mooney. “That’s another reason we worked so hard.

“Coach is always trying to set goals to reward us for good work,” Carter said.

When his team trailed by 29-19 in the Cardinals’ gymnasium, East coach Mark Cherol reminded his players of his promise.

It didn’t hurt.

“The kids didn’t give up,” Cherol said. ”They did some good things at the end of the third quarter when we started making our baskets. And they played hard on defense.”

The Cardinals couldn’t hold a five-point edge heading into the final period.

“They finished strong,” Mooney (5-6, 0-1) coach Chris Kohl said. “They did a nice job, They made their free throws and that’s what you’ve got to do to win games.

“They were getting very good penetration,” Kohl said. “Our defense was breaking down and they were getting the ball to where they wanted it. We were fouling [too much], we were always playing catchup.”

Anthony Bowers, who scored 16 points and made 14 rebounds, said the team is ready for a fun day today.

“We go in from 10 to 11 [a.m.] for the shootaround, then we’re going to work with the younger kids at noon,” Bowers said. “And after we take care of them, the party is going [to Charlie Staples Bar-B-Q].”

The party looked like a dream when Mooney’s Ronnie Martino sank a 3-pointer early in the second half for a 10-point lead.

The Panthers (7-5, 1-0) roared to life, outscoring the Cardinals 29-14 down the stretch.

“We kinda fell apart early, but we picked it up in the fourth quarter,” Bowers said. “We started looking for each other and we started getting to the line.”

The Panthers made eight of 17 free throws in the final frame and getting so many chances was by design.

“Coach told us that we had to penetrate,” said Carter who scored five of his 11 points in the final quarter. “They were running a trap and we had to score off of it.

“We made sure we were going to the line,” Carter said.” We shot a lot of foul shots down the stretch.”

Cherol said that in the first time the Cardinals and Panthers played, “we were shooting too many 3s.

“I told them we needed to attack the hole and get to the foul line more, although our free throw shooting wasn’t that good.”

Jarelle Burt contributed 12 points and Trumane Jenkins had seven.

For the Cardinals, Chuck Gruber came off the bench to scored 12 points while Martino had 11.

The Panthers feel they’ve turned the corner from a rough start.

“We’ve lost a couple of close games that we should have won,” Cherol said. “We’re starting to stay in the game more by working as a team.

Bowers admitted, “we’ve made a lot of changes, we’re looking for each other. At the beginning, we weren’t. The main thing is we played defense.”

Carter agreed.

“We were playing mostly as individuals,” Carter said. “Coach stressed to us that we have to play as a team or we’re not going to win.

“Our goal is to try and win the SVC, to make sure the Harding game counts. Harding takes the SVC every year and we’re trying to show everybody we can compete.”

The Panthers close the regular season against the high-flying Raiders.

“Our goal is to make sure that game means something,” Carter said. “Most of the time the games doesn’t mean anything.”

williams@vindy.com