Williams, Howland top Canfield

By Greg Gulas

sports@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Held to just four points in the first half, Howland’s Taylor Williams knew that she would have to kick her game up a notch after intermission if the Tigers expected to remain undefeated in league play.

The Canfield Cardinals just wished they had an answer for her tenacity in the game’s final 16 minutes.

The junior center scored a game-high 25 points, while Paige Loychik and Olivia Nicholas added 11 and 10 respectively to pace the Tigers to a 54-48 win over the Cardinals in All-American Conference Red Tier action Saturday.

“This is only the third time that we have won at Canfield in the last 17 years, so this is a very special win for us tonight,” said Tigers coach John Diehl, whose team improved to 12-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference. “We felt that it would be a real battle and it was. At halftime we knew that we needed to put more pressure on [Kaitlin] Kaleel and [Cally] Wollet, but also felt that they didn’t have an answer for Taylor.”

Four points by Sarah Vrabel and three more by Kaleel helped propel the Cardinals to outscore Howland 13-8 in the second quarter and trail just 21-19 at halftime.

Williams welcomed the break.

“You can’t help it if you miss some shots but I just needed to calm down and that is what I did at halftime,” she said. “I came out with more confidence in the second half and was able to knock down a few key shots when we needed them.”

Loychik, like Williams, felt like it was a game of two halves.

“We knew that it would be a tough game but the key for us was the fact that we didn’t turn the ball over in the second half like we did in the first half,” Loychik said. “We made good passes and were able to get the ball in to Taylor.”

Six points by Canfield’s Sabrina Mangapora and five each by Abby Baker and Allie Pavlansky after halftime offset a 13-point quarter by Williams as the Cardinals outscored the Tigers, 21-17 to forge a 40-38 margin with a quarter remaining.

Guarding a 50-48 lead with under two minutes remaining, Nicholas proceeded to score the final four points of the game from the free throw line with under a minute to play to seal the victory for the Tigers, who have won three straight league titles.

”Tonight, you saw two really good teams going after each other on the court. It was a game of who was going to make the key shots,” Canfield coach Pat Pavlansky. “Our girls are a little down right now, but I told them that I was proud of their effort because they kept their focus and intensity the entire game.

“We have three really big games coming up this week and what we need most is to guard against a hangover from this game tonight.”