East’s big run hurts Canfield

February 15, 2012 at 12:09a.m.

By BRANDON JUDEH

CANFIELD

A 10-0 third quarter run on Tuesday helped the East High boys basketball team pull away from Canfield, 76-60.

It was a tight game for most of three quarters, but with 2:15 remaining in the third quarter, the Panthers (11-6) pulled off a dazzling display of offense that proved to be the most critical 10 seconds of the game.

First, Terrell McClain dunked the ball over a Canfield defender. Five seconds later, Mike Hornbuckle stole the ball and scored off a lay-up and was fouled.

After missing the free throw, McClain grabbed the rebound and put it in the hoop to cap off a game-changing six-point swing that put East on top by 11 points.

“That run was big, because Canfield kept battling back,” East head coach Mark Cherol. “I give them and their coaching staff a lot of credit.”

Another big factor for East was their dominance on the boards. The Panthers out-rebounded Canfield by 15, 38-23. This was due in large part to their two big men — 6-foot-3 Deontay Scott and 6-2 Jamir Humphrey.

Scott led all rebounders with 10 and added 12 points while Humphrey grabbed eight boards and led the charge defensively.

“We set goals for ourselves every game and try to get better every game,” Humphrey said. “We pride ourselves on rebounding.”

Scott chimed in: “This is nothing new, we do this every game,” when talking about his teams presence on the glass.

The game started out as a back-and-forth battle, with both teams exchanging baskets and leads.

The Panthers shot 7-12 in the first quarter, and 55 percent for the game, to jump out to a three-point lead.

In the second quarter things would turn ugly for Canfield (7-12, 3-6 All American Conference) as poor ball handling lead to easy buckets for East. Despite the many turnovers and sloppy play the Cardinals were down 32-28 entering intermission.

“Besides getting killed on the boards, the couple of big runs they had really hurt us,” Canfield head coach Todd Muckleroy said. “We went through a long drought in the third quarter and that cost us, we had some steals in the fourth, but couldn’t cash in.”

The Cardinals severely missed senior big man Kyle Brown, who was unable to play due to sickness.

“Kyle averages near double digit rebounds, so having him out definitely hurt us with rebounding, if he could have played that would have narrowed the margin on the boards,” Muckleroy said.

The Cardinals made a nice run in the fourth quarter, thanks to a full-court press that led to a few steals and allowed them to cut the lead to 10 points.

After Canfield made that run, Humphrey put the exclamation point on the game when he slammed down a vicious dunk with 40 seconds left.

The leading scorer for East was McClain with 16 points while Jaylan Marrow and Hornbuckle each chipped in with 12.

For the Cardinals, senior Matt Yourstowsky led the way with 19 points, Marco Delorenzo scored 10 and Will Yobi grabbed 10 boards.