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Jacubec guides Cats past NF
By Joe Scalzo
STRUTHERS
At the top of south wall of the Struthers Fieldhouse, there’s a white Ohio-shaped sign commemorating the Wildcats’ lone state title, a AAA girls basketball championship in 1978.
Naturally, this year’s boys basketball team would love to put another one next to it.
“They’re high school kids,” said Struthers coach Joe Savko, chuckling. “They’re like, ‘Hey, we want to win a state championship.’
“But the thing we’ve talked about is we believe we have a chance to make some noise this year.”
To do so, Savko has focused on something a little lower on the wall. The boys basketball team has won just two district titles, in 1956 and 1999.
With the Wildcats returning just about everyone from last year’s district semifinalists, and with no obvious front-runner in Division II this year, Struthers has to be considered one of the favorites.
“I would think so,” Savko said.
On Friday night, the Wildcats made believers out of Newton Falls coach Roy Sembach, a perennial regional qualifier who watched his young team get rolled, 65-37.
After cutting their deficit to 10 with a minute left in the third quarter, the Tigers were outscored 24-8 over the final nine minutes.
“We’re a talented team and we’re a young team,” Sembach said. “They’re a talented team and they’ve a veteran team.
“You can see that seasoning they have. They have a chance to go a long, long way.”
Senior Nate Jacubec had a typically strong game, scoring a game-high 23 points for Struthers (4-0). Senior Adam Ryczaj added just six points, but had 13 rebounds, two assists and a steal.
“He does a tremendous job in there,” Sembach said of Ryczaj. “He can not score a point and people wouldn’t know how huge of a factor he is in winning basketball games. He does everything really, really well.”
Those two get the most attention for Struthers, but it’s the contribution of guys like Jake Jacubec (three 3s), Jordan Ryan (seven points, eight rebounds) and Ja’Meire Brown (eight points) that make the Wildcats so difficult to beat.
“We’ve got shooters, playmakers, rebounders and we all play a role,” said Brown.
What’s his?
“Be the speedy point guard,” he said. “Make good decisions.”
Cody Dillon scored 17 points for the Tigers (2-1), who went 10 days between games and whose offense too often deteriorated into one player creating his shot and the other four standing and watching. Once Savko sensed what was happening, he told his players to play one-on-one defense, stay in front of their assignment and grab every rebound.
It worked perfectly, as the Tigers shot just 14 of 47 from the field and were outrebounded 39-22.
“I was disappointed with our offensive energy the entire night,” Sembach said. “It was more they wanted to watch Cody do things than Cody trying to do too much.
“I hope as we progress, we’ll get better and we can approach being what they are right now by the end of the season.”