Howland stuns Canfield at the buzzer

Associated Press

CANFIELD

The Howland High boys basketball team ended 2011 in dramatic fashion with a winning shot at the buzzer to defeat Canfield 71-70 on Friday night.

After the Cardinals’ (3-5, 0-3 All-American Conference) Will Yobi hit a pair of free throws to give Canfield its first lead of the game there was still 4.5 seconds left on the clock.

That was plenty of time for Howland’s Brendan Cope to take the ball coast to coast.

“The play was drawn up perfectly, I came off my screen at half court, dribbled it down and everyone was denied so I took it to the hole and finished it off,” Cope said.

A stunned Canfield crowd, along with its players, could only watch as the Tigers (5-2,3-0) mobbed Cope underneath the basket after he hit the winning shot.

“We wanted to get Brendan [Cope] the ball and attack the basket and we thought they would collapse on him then we would be able to kick the ball out to one of our shooters on the wing,” said Howland coach Bill Bogan. “Since Canfield didn’t collapse on him we let an athlete be an athlete and take it to the hoop and score.”

Howland had the Cardinals on the brink all night, taking leads of eight and 10 points during critical moments of the game.

Canfield, however, would not die.

With four minutes left in the game the Tigers took a commanding 10-point lead, which lead to a Canfield timeout.

A Yobi 3-pointer helped spark the Cardinals to a 7-0 run that cut the lead to three points. Howland then missed three free throws down the stretch to keep the Cards within striking range.

Though the black and orange did a good job of pressuring their opponents all night, Bogan gave the Cardinals a lot of credit with how they handled the full court press.

“It was typical Canfield basketball out there tonight,” he said. “The basketball IQ out here is through the roof; if you let them X and O out there they are going to pick you apart.”

The pace of the game was fast and physical with Howland hitting eight out of its first 13 shots. Canfield stayed close early by getting to the free throw line. Howland took a slim 35-33 lead into halftime.

The third quarter was much like the rest of the game: plenty of hustle, physical play and good passing.

Canfield dished out 16 assists while Howland countered with 12.

“I think our team is still going through some growing pains; we only have two guys with any varsity experience, but hopefully we learn quick, before I lose all of my hair,” said Bogan.

Having big games for Howland were Tanner Scott with 24 points and three assists and Chris Maze added 18 points.

For Canfield Yobi had 13 points and 10 rebounds while big man Kyle Brown scored 18 points and grabbed 11 boards.