East overcame a slight halftime deficit to pull away from Perry 64-48 in a sectional semifinal.

By Joe Scalzo | March 3, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

CANTON — The last time his team played at the Canton Civic Center, East High boys basketball coach Mark Cherol watched his Panthers run out to a 14-2 lead against Fitch only to lose by 12 points in last year’s Division I sectional opener.

He entered Monday’s game with a better team, a better chance and, fortunately for Cherol, a better result.

East overcame a slight halftime deficit to pull away from Perry 64-48 in a sectional semifinal.

It was the first tournament win for East/Rayen since 2002, when the then-Tigers beat Salem in the sectional opener.

“Our goals this year were to try to win the [Steel Valley Conference] and get as far in the tournament as we can,” said Cherol. “Our kids were determined not to lose that first game.”

East didn’t win the SVC — they fell to Warren Harding in the last game of the regular season and finished 4-1 in the league — but it did enter the tournament playing some of its best basketball of the season, having won 10 of 12.

Monday’s game was close through 22 minutes, with East ahead 39-36 late in the third quarter.

Then Perry went cold and East got aggressive, using a 19-6 run to put the game away.

“I told the kids to hit the boards a little harder in the second half,” said Cherol whose team trailed 27-26 at halftime. “If we hit the boards, we win.

“We hit the boards, our defense picked up and we were able to overcome that first-half deficit.”

Senior Kenny Carter, who sat out the first quarter after missing the bus to the game, scored all eight of East’s points in the second quarter and finished with 20. Junior Jarelle Burt added 18 for East (12-8).

“We knew coming in that Carter and [Burt] were the two guys we needed to do a good job on and for the most part, we did that for 21‚Ñ2 quarters,” said Perry coach Rob Toth, who lost eight seniors from last year’s district final team. “We’ve hard a hard time finishing games this year for a variety of reasons.

“That [second half struggles] is pretty typical for our season.”

Senior Nick Voican scored 17 points to lead Perry (9-12).

“You know what?” Toth said. “They played better than we did and they deserve to win.

“They did a good job.”

East advanced to meet last year’s district champion, Canton Timken, in a sectional final at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

“They’ve got a fine program,” said Cherol.

“We’ve got to come out ready to play and we can’t make too many mistakes.

“It’s going to be a big challenge.”

Canton GlenOak 122, Chaney 80

In the nightcap, senior guard C.J. McCollum scored 30 points as GlenOak (17-4) took a 35-17 lead after the first quarter and was never threatened.

Chez Brown added 17 points and David Tucker 15 as the Golden Eagles got scoring from 11 players.

The game’s only drama came in the closing seconds of the third quarter, when the Eagles made a 3-pointer to cross the century mark and take a 101-58 lead into the final eight minutes.

Much of the second half resembled a NBA All-Star game with both teams looking to dunk, throw cross court passes and shoot at every opportunity.

Senior Myke Parker scored 17 points and junior Dominique Brown added 16 for the Cowboys (5-16).

scalzo@vindy.com