43
Strong second half lifts Boardman over Niles
By Doug Chapin
Niles
Boardman High used a 15-0 run in the third quarter to open up a three-point lead on the way to a 64-43 victory over Niles on Friday, the opening night of the boys high school basketball season.
The Spartans led 13-12 after one quarter and 27-22 at the half. The five-point spread at intermission matched the largest lead the visitors had in the initial two quarters.
The score was 29-26 at the 6:57 mark when Boardman went on its run. Niles did not score again until the 2:14 mark after the Spartans had opened the lead to 44-26.
“We finished much better in the third quarter and we didn’t make the dumb fouls,” first-year Boardman coach Dan McKeown said. “We started moving our feet, keeping our hands off and we didn’t put them on the foul line. We really made them work in the half court and then, for the most part, we gave them just one shot.”
The Spartans led 49-27 after three and the Red Dragons never got closer than 18 points in the final quarter.
Dayne Hammond led Boardman with 18 points, including the Spartans’ first 10 of the game, and nine rebounds. Trae Robinson had nine rebounds and seven assists; John Fabian contributed 11 points, four steals and four assists; T.J. Irving scored 14 points, and Alex Passas had four steals.
“I came out and I was real pumped,” Hammond said about his fast start. “I was thinking just come out, start shooting, and play how I usually play.”
The junior forward echoed his coach’s sentiments about the third quarter.
“We started playing a lot smarter,” he said. “In the first half we had a lot of dumb fouls, we weren’t really hustling on defense and we weren’t finishing layups. The second half came around and we started making our layups, built a lead and finished it off.”
Bobby Marino scored 11 points for Niles, Tyler Negro added 10 and Reggie Wells had seven points, four assists and five rebounds.
“We just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” Niles coach Rick Kover said. “We had open shots and we just didn’t hit them. That wasn’t the only reason we struggled in the second half, our inexperience showed up. They were doing a good job of changing up defenses and our recognition of that wasn’t very good.”
Niles shot 31 percent (14-for-45) from the floor, compared to 42 percent (23-for-55) for Boardman. The Spartans dominated the boards, 41-18.
“There were a lot of good things, but a lot of things we need to work on,” McKeown said. “We’re happy we came out with the W, that’s the number one goal, but we still have a lot to accomplish.”