Lowellville, YCS advance

March 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

By TOM WILLIAMS

STRUTHERS

Free throws, a season-long bugaboo for the Lowellville High boys basketball team, were a strength Saturday night, giving the Rockets their third win against Inter Tri-County League Tier Two rival Southern.

Leading 40-36 with 3:25 to go in the Division IV sectional final at Struthers Fieldhouse, the Rockets (16-6) didn’t score another basket. They didn’t need it as they hit 14 free throws down the stretch while shutting out the Indians for a 54-36 victory.

The win earned the Rockets a district semifinal date on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Youngstown Christian (20-1), which ousted Lisbon, 83-41 in Saturday’s second game,

“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to play Youngstown Christian in the district championship game,” Lowellville coach Mike Mangine said. “Unfortunately, it’s going to be in the semifinals but we’ll take that.

“They are awesome, they’re big, they’ve got everything that it takes and we’ll give them everything we’ve got,” Mangine said.

Mangine was happy to see extra free-throw shooting practice pay dividends.

“That’s been the monkey on our back all year long,” Mangine said. “We’ve been in all these close games with these good teams, and we weren’t able to finish at the end because of foul shooting.

“Tonight, we were 17 of 21 and we did it. We shoot at least 100 foul shots a night — it finally paid off,” Mangine said.

Anthony Alfano led the Rockets with 14 points while Mike Matisi contributed eight including four shots from the line.

“This is what we’ve been working for all year,” Alfano said. “During the year, we haven’t done too well with free throws but lately Coach has been stressing them. [It seems] all we’ve been doing in practice is free throws.”

Jake Boyle led the Indians (13-9) with 14 points while Eric Baker scored 10.

“They are a good team,” Mangine said of sweeping the Indians. “We were down at their place at it was 98-97. We got the call at the end of that game.

“At our gym, it was a close game to the end. They don’t match up real well with us so we had to throw some junk defenses at them.”

John Pecchia ignited Youngstown Christian’s offense by scoring the game’s first six points. He finished with 23 while Casey Carroll scored 17, Anthony Walker 12 and Louis Fatimus 10.

“We know they are one of the best teams in the area,” Alfano said of the Eagles. “We’re just [wanted] a chance to play the best, to beat the best.”

For the Blue Devils (9-13), Todd Padurean scored 17 points.