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Tempers flare late as Canfield beats Boardman
Boardman gets rough welcome as tempers flair in new AAC rivalry
CANFIELD
Sure, Canfield High and Boardman High have met in boys basketball before, but the stakes have increased this year.
It’s the Spartans’ first season in the All-American Conference and the Cardinals weren’t about to throw their new neighbors a welcome party.
Instead they beat them 50-37 in a game that included more than a few elbows, three technical fouls and one statement to the new kids on the block.
“We wanted to send a message tonight and I think we did that,” said senior guard John French, who found himself in the center of it all late in the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals (2-0, 1-0 AAC Red) were holding on to a double-digit lead late in the game when tempers reached a boiling point. Boardman’s John Ryan was fouled going to the hoop and in the process fell on top of a Cardinal who was lying on the floor.
Their bodies got tangled and French ran over and got in the face of Ryan. Finger-pointing turned into shoving and the Spartans’ Gannon Murray had to be restrained by his coaches — as did French.
When the dust settled, both Murray and French were assessed double technical fouls. Both players downplayed the tussle afterward, but it wasn’t forgotten.
“Usually I keep it low-key on the court — I’m the funny guy,” French said. “I kind of lost it today trying to defend one of my teammates, but that’s my fault. It won’t happen again.”
Murray said he enjoyed the high level of intensity at which the game was played for most of the night, but there was nothing more to it.
“It was just two guys defending our guys,” Murray said. “We just weren’t having it.”
As far as the play on the court, Canfield was in control from the opening tip. The Cardinals jumped out to a 9-0 lead and it took until the two-minute mark of the first quarter for the Spartans (1-2, 0-2 AAC Red) to score their first points.
It didn’t get much easier from there, as Boardman went into the locker room with just nine points.
“We just weren’t hitting shots,” said Murray, who scored a team-high 10 points. “[We] tried to run our plays and it just didn’t work out. Shots just weren’t falling.”
Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy was especially pleased with his team’s defensive effort, after feeling “disenchanted” after giving up 64 points in a season-opening win over Howland.
“We know that on the defensive end any team can control their effort by giving 100 percent,” he said. “I’m very happy with the way we played tonight.”
Junior forward Mason Mangapora scored a game-high 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and pulled down five rebounds for the Cardinals. French, Mike Yourstowsky and Jake Cummings each chipped in with nine points.
“We knew this year we had to buckle down and work together as a team,” French said. “The points have to be evenly distributed.”
For Boardman, it’s more of the same as it can’t seem to get clicking on all cylinders. The Spartans shot 13 of 30 (43.3 percent) as a team on Friday.
Head coach Pat Birch likes the effort, but realizes they have to find a way to produce results.
“Our effort’s been there all season, but we have to get past just expecting good effort,” Birch said. “We can’t pat ourselves on the back because we play hard — that has to be who we are.”