43
Struthers smothers Canfield attack
By Greg Gulas
Canfield
The Struthers High girls basketball team scored just three buckets in the opening half and failed to score a hoop the entire second period of Thursday’s 43-33 victory at Canfield.
The Wildcats went scoreless for 11 minutes and 47 seconds in the middle two quarters and failed to score a bucket for 15 minutes and 12 seconds during that same stretch.
But with six seconds remaining and only after connecting on the first of two charity tosses, the Wildcats’ Katelyn Ardale became the game’s only double-digit scorer.
When told of the aforementioned statistics, Struthers coach John Grandy used just one word to describe his team’s overall play.
“Defensive,” Grandy said.
Ardale’s 10 points, eight of which came after intermission, offset a cold-shooting night by both squads.
“We lost to Howland in our season opener and despite the loss, because of our overall effort at both ends of the court, I felt deep-down that we could still be a good team,” Grandy said.
“Canfield is an excellent program under Coach [Pat] Pavlansky and I cannot remember the last time that we have beaten the Cardinals, it’s been so long,” Grandy said.
“But our program is up and coming and tonight you saw how we hung in there, especially defensively, after such a slow start,” Grandy said.
“Katelyn is our team leader and captain and the one who keeps us together while Hannah [Dubec] had several key blocks and rebounds — confidence builders when we needed them most,” Grandy said.
The Wildcats jumped out to the early 7-2 lead but four points by Canfield’s Sarah Vrabel keyed an 8-0 run to close the quarter.
Cally Wollet added six of her team-high nine points in the second frame and the Canfield defense stymied the Wildcats’ offense, which permitted the Cardinals to forge a 17-9 halftime advantage.
A bucket by Abby Baker just 20 seconds into the third quarter gave Canfield their largest lead of the night at 19-9.
But Dubec’s four points keyed a 16-7 run to close the quarter as Struthers pulled to within one, 26-25 with one period remaining.
“At halftime, Coach told us to just keep playing hard, play smart, keep together and good things would happen,” Dubec said.
Ardale’s six points in the final quarter then helped Struthers (1-1) close out a 34-16 second-half run.
“The spark for us came in the third quarter when we realized that we could win this game if we just played hard, especially on defense,” Ardale said.
The Cardinals (1-1), who connected on just 11 of 47 field goal attempts, also committed 19 turnovers.
“We’re shooting just 25 percent from the field and the last time I looked, you had to put the ball in the hoop in order to win,” Pavlansky said.