LaBrae ‘gets lucky’ to beat Newton Falls

January 15, 2011 at 12:10a.m.

By doug Chapin

leavittsburg

It was one of those games after which it was difficult to determine, from the comments of the head coaches, which team had won the game.

LaBrae High coach Chad Kiser expressed dismay that his team allowed a 20-point first-half lead to be whittled away to the final margin of a 56-53 victory Friday night over arch-rival Newton Falls.

The Tigers’ coach, Roy Sembach, praised his squad’s comeback, especially considering top scorer Cody Dillon had fouled out in the third quarter and the Tigers played without injured point guard Dale Kernen.

“We moved the ball well and played well as a team in the first half. We ran exactly what we wanted to, we spaced them out and we were patient,” Kiser said. “We got good shots and knocked them down, got to the line and shot the free throws alright in the first half.

“We played as well as we could play the first half and we played as bad as we could play in the second half. We literally got lucky to win the game. We just quit playing in the second half, we quit focusing. It wasn’t one kid, it was the whole group. They [Newton Falls] showed in the second half what we did in the first half, if you move the ball and play as a team you have a chance to win.”

“LaBrae came out and played extremely well and I thought we let our emotions get to us a little bit,” Sembach said. “It’s a big rivalry game and some of our kids got a little out of control discipline-wise on the court, committing some silly fouls, taking some bad shots, and it put us in a really bad hole.

“I can’t say enough about the comeback and the heart we showed in the second half. All season we’ve had three guys doing a super job at the point. Dale Kernen, was out with an ankle, Cody was out with fouls, so Matt Brazin had to go the whole second half, up and down the floor, and he just gutted it out and did a tremendous job.”

Matt Szorady scored 12 of his game-high 17 points in the first quarter for LaBrae as the Vikings (9-1, 2-0 All-American Conference Blue) opened a 22-7 lead.

The advantage was 29-9 at the 3:24 mark of the half, but the Tigers were able to cut it to 31-16 at the break. Dillon scored 12 of Newton Falls’ 16 points in the first half.

The visitors scored the first seven points of the second half to get within eight before LaBrae recovered. Dillon’s fourth foul was an offensive foul and he quickly picked up his fifth, with 2:48 on the third-quarter clock, at the defensive end before he could be replaced.

The Vikings opened the lead to 39-25 but it was 46-35 after three quarters and was never larger than 11 points in the fourth. On the other hand, the Tigers had trouble getting closer than six points

Two free throws by Jake Jaros with 26 seconds left made it 56-48 and LaBrae was able to withstand Falls’ final five points.

Jaros and John Richards backed Szorady for LaBrae with 13 points each.

Brazin led Falls with 14 points and six assists. Dillon finished with 12 points, Tyler Kernen had 10, and Brian Moser grabbed nine rebounds.