Falls drops LaBrae in OT

By Doug Chapin

sports@vindy.com

HOWLAND

Tyler Kernen nailed a 3-pointer from the right corner 17 seconds into overtime and Newton Falls High sank eight-of-10 free throw attempts in the extra session as the Tigers captured the Division III district title at Howland High with a 50-45 victory over LaBrae.

The win avenged a 52-45 loss to LaBrae in the district final a year ago. The teams split two regular-season games this year.

Newton Falls (19-5) advances to face East Canton Wednesday in the regional tournament at Canton.

The Tigers’ last trip to the regional came in 2003.

Kernen, a junior guard, had just missed from the same spot in the final seconds of regulation, leaving the game tied at 39-39.

After his overtime 3-pointer, Falls held LaBrae to four straight 3-point misses while gradually building the lead to 46-39 from the foul line. Sophomore guard Matt Szorady used a 3-pointer and a three-point play to pull the Vikings (15-8) to within 48-45 with 41 seconds remaining.

Newton Falls split four free throws the rest of the way and LaBrae struggled to get open looks, missing on its final two 3-point tries.

“Our half-court defense was outstanding,” Newton Falls coach Roy Sembach said. “We didn’t give them many open looks in the half-court defense, and we had to do that because we turned the ball over so often on offense.

“I thought we were a little shaky throughout the game, but we were so composed in the overtime. We hit our shots, we made our foul shots down the stretch, we weathered a couple storms. I’m very, very proud of their effort; they stayed focused.”

Mitch Czerniak came off the bench to provide a scoring spark for the Tigers with a 12-point performance. Cody Dillon and Brian Sole tallied 10 points each for Falls.

Szorady finished with 13 points for LaBrae and Jacob Jaros scored 12.

Newton Falls led 16-12 after the first quarter and was ahead 26-17 — the largest lead by either team in the game — with 2:11 left in the half.

LaBrae closed to within 26-23 at the break.

The Vikings caught up at 29-29 two minutes into the third quarter and grabbed their first lead, 31-29 at the 4:26 mark. LaBrae led 37-35 headed into the final quarter.

The Tigers quickly tied the game and the score remained at 37-37 until Szorady scored at the 1:37 mark. Czerniak’s bucket with 58 seconds left provided the final points of regulation.

“We are, I believe, 15 or 16-0 when we hold a team under 50,” Sembach said. “It’s what we want, the lower the score the better.”

Sembach, who is assisted by Tom Shaulis and Mike Mazanetz, said the staff had a chance to get the team re-focused heading into tournament play.

“We lost our last two games of the regular season this year. Sometimes things have to break before you can fix them,” Sembach said. “Those last two losses really gave us an opportunity as a coaching staff to fix some things. Now we had their attention and our focus going into the tournament was on ourselves. I told them the biggest enemy in the room is ourselves. If we take care of ourselves we can win it.

“It’s sweet just to win a district championship, it doesn’t matter who it’s against.”