Maplewood downs Mogadore

By RYAN JONES

sports@vindy.com

WARREN

Stifling defense and a strong performance at the charity stripe propelled Maplewood to a 49-29 victory over Mogadore in a Division IV district semifinal at Warren Harding High School.

The No. 2 seeded Rockets (17-5) will play No. 1 seeded Mathews on Friday, with a berth in the regional semifinals in Canton on the line.

Maplewood coach Matt Urchek said his squad watched enough tape to know that Mogadore was dangerous from beyond the arc.

“We knew that they [Mogadore] could shoot it, and that a variety of guys do it for them,” he said. “What we noticed on film was that most of their 3s were wide open shots.

“We wanted to get up in them and make them hurry their shots. Once we did that I think it took them out of their comfort zone.”

The Wildcats (14-9) struggled early and often from 3-point range (0-of-10) and shot just 2-of-19 in the first half to trail Maplewood 22-10.

Mogadore coach Russ Swartz said his team’s shooting performance snowballed.

“We missed shots early and I think we lost our confidence and became hesitant to shoot — and that’s not like us at all,” he said. “As we kept missing Maplewood sagged off us more and really cut down our chances for dribble penetration.”

Maplewood struggled from the field in the second half (7-of-22), but found some offensive punch at the foul line. The Rockets sank 13-of-16 free tosses in the second half, including 10-of-12 in the fourth quarter.

“It turned into a grind-it-out type of game in the second half,” Urchek said. “That tends to favor us because we shoot it pretty well [74 percent this season] from the line. We told our guys to attack the hoop and draw fouls as much as they could.”

Maplewood split two regular season meetings with Northeastern Athletic Conference rival Mathews.

“I’m sure they want a piece of us,” Urchek said. “We lost by two to them at the Covelli Centre and then beat them by 20 at our place.”

Mathews won the first meeting, 67-65, on Jan. 22 in downtown Youngstown at the Covelli Centre. Maplewood won the rematch, 69-49, on its home floor on Feb. 27.

“We know each other inside and out. They have a speed and quickness advantage, but we have a size advantage — especially with our guards.

“It’s nice to see two NAC teams battle for a chance to go to regionals.”

Justin Fenstermaker led Maplewood with 11 points and 10 rebounds, Ben Moser tallied eight and Tom Bottorff chipped in with eight points and had four assists and three steals.