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Defense dominant as Lowellville holds off Reserve
By Brandon Judeh
Photo
Lowellville’s Dean Donatelli (42) is closely guarded by Western Reserve’s Tim Cooper (3) during the second half of the Division IV sectional semifinal Monday at Struthers Fieldhouse. The Rockets edged the Blue Devils, 29-26.
Struthers
The Division IV boys basketball tournament kicked off in dramatic fashion Monday night, as Lowellville defeated Western Reserve 29-26 at Struthers Fieldhouse.
After two Rocket free throws put them up by three with 25 seconds left, the Blue Devils (11-10) had one last shot at sending the game into overtime.
Western Reserve’s last-second 3-pointer hit off the backboard and rolled off the rim, allowing the Rockets (10-11) to live another day.
“I was rattled the last 25 seconds, we were playing hard defense and Spiro Schialdone’s free throws were clutch, we are happy he made them,” said Lowellville’s Carmen Donofrio.
“We just took a mental break at the end of the game and you can’t do that in a possession by possession game like this,” said Western Reserve head coach Tim King. “I feel for my seniors, they gave everything they could give and they were big role models for the younger kids.”
Things started off slow in the first quarter as it took nearly three and a half minutes for either team to score. The first basket came at the 4:33 mark when Jeff Clegg banked in a 3-pointer to put Western Reserve on top.
Exactly two minutes and seven seconds later Lowellville finally scored off a Donofrio lay-up.
At the end of one, the score was 10-4 Blue Devils.
Lowellville junior Drew McLaughlin said the game came down to which team was going to play better defense.
“It’s very tough playing in a game like that, especially when no one is hitting shots, so there is a lot of rebounding going on,” he said.
In the second quarter the Rockets played better defense and didn’t allow Western Reserve to score a field goal until the last second of the quarter.
With less than 10 seconds left Lowellville was up 16-12, after outscoring the Blue Devils 12-2. That’s when Western Reserve’s Payton Snyder tossed up a prayer from 27 feet away and banked it in.
The Blue Devils carried the momentum of Snyder’s shot into the second half as they scored the first six points, capping off a 9-0 run and taking a five-point lead.
In the third quarter, the Blue Devils held Lowellville without a bucket for the first 5:37. Both teams combined for nine points in the quarter.
The game came down to who wanted it more, said Donofrio, who added the Rocket seniors did not want this to be their final game.
“This was big,” Donofrio said. “We wanted to win, our season was a little rough and we had that big losing streak, so this meant a lot we didn’t want the season to end yet.”
David Wilaj scored nine points, all off 3-pointers, for the Rockets and Dean Donatelli grabbed 11 boards.
For Western Reserve, Thomas Benyo scored nine points and had eight rebounds, while Jeff Clegg scored six and grabbed six boards.