43
Newton Falls uses a familiar script
By Doug Chapin
HOWLAND
Newton Falls scored 15 consecutive points in the first half to take control on the way to a 79-43 rout of Garrettsville Garfield on Friday in a Division III boys basketball sectional final.
The second-seeded Tigers (18-4) advance to a district semifinal on Wednesday against Berkshire.
Garfield (3-18) was within two points at 9-7 at the 2:18 mark of the first quarter. But Falls scored the last seven points of the stanza and the first eight of the second quarter to open a 24-7 lead. The Tigers went on to a 32-12 halftime lead and coasted from there.
“Over the last month we’ve thought that if we want to get to the level where we could possibly compete for a district championship, our defense needed to get better,” Newton Falls coach Roy Sembach said. “And it has gotten better, considerably, over the last month of the season. We’ve done a much better job of locking down on defense. We’ve done a nice job improving in that area and I was pleased with our defensive effort again tonight.”
The Tigers held the G-Men to 4-for-20 shooting in the first half, when the game was decided, including 0-for-7 from 3-point range. Garfield finished 3-for-14 from the arc, compared to a 7-for-14 performance by the Tigers.
Sembach explained improvement in 3-point shooting and in defending the 3-point shot have been keys to the season.
“The first half of the year I wasn’t happy with our defense and I looked back at our five district championship teams and one that got beat in a district final, six of our best teams that we’ve had,” he said. “I noticed three statistics: the 3-point line, our percentage compared to our opponents, and points given up.
“Those teams, the gap in 3-point percentage was anywhere from 9 to 16 percent, and points per game were all below 50. At that time of the year (after nine games) we were making 34 percent of our 3s and giving up 36 percent, and we were giving up 54 points a game.
“Since then, it’s been unbelievable. We already have our points against average below 50 and our 3-point percentage, going into tonight, we were 36 and our opponents were at 33. So in those 13 games we’ve shot about 40 percent to 25 percent for our opponents. We‘re doing what those teams did to give ourselves a chance.”
Cody Dillon scored 16 points, including 3-for-3 from behind the arc, and grabbed 11 rebounds for Newton Falls. Tyler Kernan added 10 points and Mitch Czerniak had nine.