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Canfield’s 3-point success snaps Boardman’s six-season streak
By Tom Williams
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Canfield's Sabrina Mangapora (44) drives to the hoop past Boardman's Darryce Moore (44) only to be fouled during the third quarter of a game at Boardman High School on Thursday evening.
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The Vindicator/Geoffrey Hauschild.Canfield's Jillian Halfhill (4) shoots past Boardman's Missy Demarinis (20).during the third quarter of a game at Boardman High School on Thursday evening.
BOARDMAN — Canfield High girls basketball coach Pat Pavlansky stressed one word to his team before Thursday’s showdown at Boardman — believe.
A rugged first half saw the Cardinals trailing, with Spartans senior post player Darryce Moore dominating from underneath the basket with 12 points.
Reinforced at the break, the Cardinals soared in the third quarter, outscoring the Spartans 28-8 en route to a 62-54 victory.
In the turnaround quarter, junior guard Cally Wollet hit three 3-pointers, senior guard Jillian Halfhill made two and senior Sara Shoemaker hit one as the Cards (13-7) opened up a 15-point lead.
The Spartans spent most of the fourth-quarter slicing into the deficit, finally cutting it to 57-50 after junior guard Missy DeMarinis made two 3-pointers within 10 seconds.
But five free throws down the stretch by Halfhill sealed the Cardinals’ ninth win in their last 10 games.
“It’s a big deal,” said Halfhill of Canfield’s first win against Boardman in six seasons. Members of different leagues, the Spartans and Cardinals still play home-and-home series.
“When it was the fourth quarter with a minute left, I was like [wow], this is amazing,” said Halfhill who scored 19 points. “We hit like six 3s in a row.
“Cally is scared to shoot sometimes, but then once she finally hits a 3, she’ll keep shooting them and she’ll keep hitting them and others [follow],” said Halfhill, a Bowling Green recruit. “It’s awesome.”
Boardman (16-4) is ranked 10th in the state in the Associated Press poll of Division I schools and has the top seed at the Alliance district tournament that begins Saturday.
The Spartans also have two losses in six days against teams they could face in district competition — Canfield and ninth-ranked Canton McKinley. Last Saturday at Alliance, McKinley won the Federal League tournament with a 54-49 win over Boardman.
Canfield has been rolling since a 4-6 start. Their only loss in the second half of the season was a two-point defeat to Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown, the No. 6 team in Div. II. With a double-overtime win at Howland, the Cards tied the Tigers for first place in the All-American Conference Red Tier.
Pavlansky said his challenge was to keep his team confident.
“We wrote a whole lot of words on the board, but at the end of the [pep] talk I said, ‘The only seven-letter word that I care about tonight is believe,’ ” Pavlansky said. ”You know what? They believed tonight.”
At halftime, Pavlansky said he told his players that ‘we’re only down five and we didn’t play real well. We didn’t take our time and we weren’t prepared to shoot the ball when we were open. “
In her final home game, Ohio State recruit Moore scored 24 points, pulled down eight rebounds and made two steals. Senior point guard Doriyon Glass scored 14 points and made four rebounds before fouling out with 5:52 to go.
In the opening minute of the second half, Wollet hit two 3-pointers to put Canfield ahead, 22-21. Baskets by junior Kaitlin Kaleel, Halfhill and freshman Sabrina Mangapora capped a 13-0 run.
“It felt good because I missed a couple in the first half,” Wollet said. “I was so psyched to see them go in.
“This just gives us a lot of confidence because Boardman is the top of our tier,” Wollet said.
Pavlansky called it “a great win for us, but we have a bigger game on Monday.”
That’s when Canfield, the fifth seed, will open tournament play against Massillon (16-3), the fourth seed.
The Spartans open the tournament on Saturday against 12th-seeded Canton Timken.
williams@vindy.com