McDonald soars back to Canton

March 12, 2011 at 12:09a.m.

STRUTHERS

More than another conference title or even an unbeaten season, the McDonald High boys basketball team wanted one thing most of all — another shot in Canton.

In their third game of the season against Wellsville, the Blue Devils earned their second straight district title, pummeling the Tigers, 85-53, on Friday in the Division IV district title game at Struthers Fieldhouse.

The victory sends unbeaten McDonald (23-0) back to the Canton Fieldhouse for Tuesday’s game against today’s winner between Richmond Heights and Lutheran East.

“It’s really exciting to go to regionals,” said senior point guard Justin Rota who scored 20 points and made four steals against the Tigers (17-7). “Hopefully we’ll [produce] a better game than we did last year.

“We made a statement tonight that we want to make a [long] run,” Rota said.

The Blue Devils are rolling after going 20-0 for the third straight regular season.

Last March, McDonald defeated Youngstown Christian, 46-44, in the district final then lost to Shadyside, 65-49, in the regional semifinal.

“Last year, we went in and were a little shaken up, we hadn’t been in that atmosphere before,” Rota said. “Hopefully, we’ll be a little more used to it this time.”

Powering the Blue Devils was Rota’s twin, Nick, who scored 30 points and made four rebounds and four steals.

“It just feels great, this is what we came here for, to win big games like this,” Nick Rota said. “Now it’s time to go down to Canton to do something we haven’t done yet.”

McDonald, which is looking for its first regional victory, was firing on all cylinders against Wellsville, soaring to a 47-25 halftime lead.

Tigers coach Dave Thompson wasn’t surprised.

“You know they are going to come hard every time,” said Thompson of McDonald. “This was our third time playing them this year and you’d think the guys would know that.

“But it’s like they still don’t understand that if you pass somebody, there’s two more coming behind you,” Thompson said of McDonald’s defenders. “You’ve got to be ready to play and play hard the whole game. We didn’t come out ready to play.”

Also scoring 20 points was senior Matthias Tayala who had five rebounds, a blocked shot and a dunk.

“We’ve been wanting that all season long,” Justin Rota said of the fourth-quarter flush that earned an ovation. “He tried it back at our place once and he almost had it.

“This time, it would have been nice if it had set the tone of the game, but it was a good finish.”

Tayala said he’s “been practicing in gym class but not in a game until today. I think I was just waiting for a big game and I finally got it.”

Another attempt had Coach Jeff Rasile’s attention when Tayala hit the floor.

“I was more concerned with the second one where he falls on his back and I saw flashes of my season coming to an end,” Rasile said. “Mattias is a freak athlete, he can’t palm the ball which can cause us some problems but he can jump.”

Rasile was proudest of how his defenders limited Wellsville’s Michael Johnston to one basket.

“They executed the game plan to perfection,” Rasile said. “We set it up that we wanted to double up Michael Johnston and make him work for everything. He probably averages about 25 per game, we held him to six — and four of those came off of free throws.

“We wanted their other guys to bring the ball up and that worked out well.”

Senior Louie Ronghi scored 11 points for McDonald.

Jalen DeSarro led the Tigers with 12 points while Nate Scott had eight.