Canfield gives Blazers a battle

Jillian Halfhill scored 18 points to lead the Cardinals against the defending state champs.

By JON MOFFETT

Vindicator sports staff

CANFIELD — Jillian Halfhill and her Canfield High teammates were all smiles after battling a tough Hathaway Brown team to the final buzzer.

And despite losing to the Blazers, the Cardinals were positive after the game.

“We had nothing to lose because leading up to this game, everyone was saying how we were going to get smacked around, so right now I have nothing to be sad about,” Halfhill said. “We played our hearts out.”

The Cardinals (7-7, 3-1 All American Conference’s Red tier) got a strong effort out of Halfhill, who led the game with 18 points, including six from the free throw line.

The Blazers (11-4), last year’s Division II state champions, took a five-point lead into halftime, but got into foul trouble early.

Senior Erica Almady had three of the team’s 10 fouls at halftime and finished with 17. Almady fouled out with 4:14 left. She finished with 13 points.

Coach Paul Barlow said his team was lucky to escape with the win.

“I don’t feel that we played very well, but I extend my credit to Canfield, and I have, because they always play hard and did some things that bothered us and that we struggled with,” he said.

One thing the Blazers struggled with was Canfield’s ability to get to the free throw line. The Cardinals had 16 attempts from the line, making 14.

“I think it affects us because we’ve got to do a better job of adjusting to the way officials call games, and I don’t think we do a very good job of that,” Barlow said. “We play a very aggressive style offensively and defensively, and we get ourselves into those situations sometimes and we don’t adjust to it.”

He added, “We’re happy to get out of here with a win, but I don’t think we played our best basketball tonight.”

In contrast, the Blazer made six out of 14 free throws. Perhaps the most crucial of those was a game-clincher by senior Mylan Woods.

With 6.3 seconds left in the game and a one-point lead, Woods was fouled by Canfield junior Cally Wollet. Woods missed the first of two shots, but made the second to put the Blazers up by two.

Woods was second on the team with 11 points, but missed four of her five free throw attempts.

The Cardinals got the ball to Halfhill, who dribbled up the court, but missed a layup just before time expired.

Canfield coach Patrick Pavlanksy said he was “super proud” of the girls and viewed the game as a moral victory to motivate the team for the rest of the season.

“Our girls just played with so much heart tonight,” said Pavlansky, whose team fell to the Blazers in the 2008 regional semis. “This wasn’t a league game, but we schedule these games so we can be better prepared [for conference opponents].”

jmoffett@vindy.com