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’Devils hustle to final
McDonald wore out Lake Center 55-42 for its 22nd consecutive victory.
STRUTHERS — All the McDonald High basketball team does well is play hard for 32 minutes — every game.
That style of play earned the top-seeded Blue Devils their 22nd consecutive win of the season with a 55-42 decision over Lake Center Christian in a Division IV district semifinal contest Tuesday at Struthers.
The victory sets up a highly anticipated matchup with Youngstown Christian (19-3) in a contest between the district’s top two seeds Friday at 7 p.m. with a trip to the Canton regional on the line.
It will be the Blue Devils sixth straight appearance in a district championship game.
McDonald has been impressive this year despite starting just two seniors. The Blue Devils don’t have any star players, they aren’t very big, and they don’t always shoot the basketball very well.
But the Devils play hard. They’re quick and they play defense with full court tenacity.
“We just all come to work ,” said McDonald junior Devin Bansberg who had a workmanlike night of 11 points and five rebounds. “Its always our ten [guys] against their six or seven. Teams don’t go as deep as us and we just wear them down.”
That’s exactly what the Blue Devils did against Lake Center.
McDonald chased, harassed, out-hustled and out-rebounded a taller Tiger team for 32 minutes.
“They definitely wore us down,” said Lake Center coach Brad Beun. “They threw ten guys at us. They wore us down and we weren’t playing sharp mentally.
“We made some bad passes and they were able to get a little momentum going.”
Despite the constant pressure from McDonald, the Tigers hung in the game until the fourth quarter.
McDonald came out and stung Lake Center with three straight layup baskets to start the fourth quarter and took control of the game.
The 6-0 run pushed a 37-30 McDonald lead out to 43-30.
Senior Lance Ronghi put the final dagger into the Tigers when he hit a long three-pointer with 4:19 left in the game to make the score 46-30.
“I really believe the constant pressure has to wear teams down,” said McDonald coach Jeff Rasile, “and we’re still fresh typically.
“I think that is the key for us. We maintain our tenacity when other teams start to struggle late in the game.”
The Devils again displayed balance offensively as sophomore Justin Rota led McDonald in scoring with 12 points. Bansberg had 11 while Ronghi added ten points. Senior Tom Orr was also strong with six points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Chris Dutcher led the Tigers with 13 points while Shane Byler added ten.
“This is my seventh consecutive championship appearance and sixth at McDonald,” said Rasile. “So we’re thrilled to be there. We have a huge challenge ahead of us.
“I know our kids are going to come out fired up and they are going to play hard.”