Canfield advances, East falls in Division I

By JOSH REILLY

sports@vindy.com

CANTON

The Canfield Cardinals advanced in the Division I boys basketball playoffs with their 49-44 victory over Massillon, before the East Panthers dropped a 74-55 decision to Canton GlenOak at the Canton Civic Center on Tuesday.

Danny Campolito buried the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:34 left in Canfield’s win and his teammates made the lead stand at the free-throw line, pushing the Cardinals (8-13) into a quarterfinal matchup against two-seed Canton Timken (Friday at 8 p.m.).

Campolito and Jake Ferrier finished with 11 points each for Canfield. Ferrier also had six rebounds while P.J. Stickel made five assists.

McElroy was Washington’s top scorer with 10 points. Bobby Conley added nine rebounds.

“The tournament draw was very interesting,” Cardinal coach Todd Muckleroy said. “When we saw we had to play Massillon Washington, I think it put our guys at ease. We are very familiar with their [the Tigers’] style.

“We did a great job of breaking their pressure. We knew it would be a key to the game.”

A 7-0 run helped the Tigers build their largest lead of six points — 16-10 — until the Cardinals chipped away. Canfield closed the first half on a 7-2 run and then opened the third quarter with a Ryan Abraham 3-pointer.

Canfield bridged an 8-0 run across the final two quarters to grab a 41-36 lead, but the Tigers — led by six points from McElroy — battled back to tie the score at 42-all.

That set the stage for Campolito’s third trey. Washington’s Jordan Toles made a basket, cutting Canfield’s lead to 45-44.

The Cardinals then made four free throws in the final 19.6 seconds. Until that point, they had struggled from the charity stripe, making only 2 of 9 before finishing the game 6 of 13.

“I was definitely disappointed when we were only 1 of 6 at halftime,” Muckleroy said. “It’s tough to shoot with a different backdrop when you’re used to playing in small gyms.

“Ironically, what helped us win the game at the end was our free-throw shooting.”

EAST-GLENOAK

East (6-13) was unable to overcome the efforts of GlenOak’s Tommy Monnot, who finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds.

Down by 18 points, the Panthers went on a nine-point run in the third quarter to trim their deficit to 51-42 before the Golden Eagles went on a 14-2 streak of their own to put the game out of reach.

“We knew we had to play an almost perfect game,” East coach Mark Cherol said. “But, at times, we played sloppy. GlenOak is very talented, and for us to play with them, we needed to use our pressure to create turnovers.”

East won the opening tip and helped itself to a 4-0 lead before the Eagles (12-9) took charge with 12 straight points of their own.

Monnot played a big role in the second quarter, scoring 12 of his points, as a 9-0 GlenOak run helped it to a 45-31 halftime lead.

When the Panthers cut the gap to single-digits in the third, they had Monnot in foul trouble, but were unable to capitalize on some open looks.

“We missed a few easy shots,” Cherol said. “[If we made] a couple of key buckets, it could have been different.

“But the kids played hard. I’m proud of my senior group. We had our struggles this year, but they played hard.”

With four 3-pointers, East leading scorer Oshay Lawrence finished with 17 points. Michael Hornbuckle contributed 12 points and five steals while Antonio Woods put in 11 points.

Turan Parker had 17 points and five assists for GlenOak.