Shooters take the spotlight

By John Kovach

Long-ball sharpshooters led Lowellville and Western Reserve wins.

STRUTHERS — Sharp shooting, especially from long range, carried Lowellville and Western Reserve to victories Tuesday night in first-round games of the Division IV sectional basketball tournament.

Lowellville, led by Mauro Amendola’s 26 points and four long bombs, made 25-for-46 (54.3 percent) from the field to beat Sebring, 60-43, in the opening game at Struthers Fieldhouse.

Western Reserve, sparked by Zach White’s 17 points including five 3-point goals, sank 23-for-42 (54.7 percent) from the floor to overpower Springfield, 64-57, in the second game.

The Rockets (11-10) now get the opportunity to stop undefeated McDonald (20-0), as they advanced to face the talented Blue Devils on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in a sectional final.

Western Reserve (12-9) moved on to play in Saturday’s opener at 6 p.m. against the winner of tonight’s first-round game between Jackson-Milton (1-19) and Lake Center Christian.

Amendola was 11-for-14 from the field, including 4-for-7 from 3-point range, and scored 16 points in the first half, to lead the Rockets to a 35-20 lead at intermission.

Then he added seven more points in the third as the Rockets carried a 50-26 advantage into the final quarter.

“Mauro has been off and on this year but this definitely is one of his better games. He’s our shooter,” said Lowellville coach Mike Mangine, who also lauded the Rockets’ defensive play.

“Everything starts at the defensive end. We believe that the offense will take care of itself if we play defense.”

Mangine also was pleased by his team’s strong rebounding despite a lack of height.

“Joe Harris is 5-11 and he had 10 rebounds and Mike Basista is 6-0 and had five rebounds. They did a fantastic job on the inside and made a difference on the inside.”

Mangine said his team has been finding the hoop lately. “We shot 70 percent last week at Jackson-Milton,” he pointed out.

Pat Minnie added 12 points and Harris nine for Lowellville.

Travis Irwin had 12 points and eight rebounds and Aaron VanKirk 11 points — all in the final quarter— to pace cold-shooting Sebring, which made only 16-for-54 (29.6 percent) from the field, including 0-for-12 from 3-point range.

But the Trojans (11-10) had a 31-27 rebounding advantage.

Sebring (11-10) coach Brian Clark said both his offense and defense failed.

“We didn’t execute on offense. We set soft screens and didn’t roll out,” said Clark. “Their defense was very good and forced us to miss shots. Our defense was very bad and helped them to make shots.”

Western Reserve was 9-for-17 (52.9 percent), including White’s 5-for-8 — all of his treys coming in about the first 10 minutes of play to power the Blue Devils to a 22-12 lead early in the second quarter.

Justin Lude also scored 17 points while Jake Barker added nine points and eight rebounds and Eric Kennehan seven points and six assists to support the Blue Devils, who padded their lead to 34-20 at the half.

Then Lude added six points in the third quarter to help Reserve take a 48-29 lead into the fourth quarter, where he added six more points.

“Zach can shoot the ball,” said coach Steve Miller of Reserve, noting that White’s five 3s are his most in one game. “He had 43 3s last year [but] he’s never shot enough to get hot.”

However, “I thought we struggled down the stretch. We were fortunate that we had a nice margin at the start.”

Coach Grant Spaite of Springfield said Reserve’s and White’s strong starts were too much to overcome.

“They came out and knocked in some big shots. White hits 5-for-7 [treys]. And after that we played catch-up.”

Todd Kibby had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Eric Lipp 13 points and Joe Musial 10 to lead Springfield, which had a 25-18 rebounds advantage. Jim Zubick added eight points and six assists.

kovach@vindy.com