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Fitch remains cool under road pressure
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Austintown Fitch guard Allexis Sallee drives toward the basket Monday night against Canfield defender Erin Risner at Canfield High School.
CANFIELD
When the Austintown Fitch girls basketball team traveled to Orlando, Fla., to compete in the KSA Holiday Invitational Tournament at the ESPN Zone in December, Falcons coach Stacie Cepin was hoping the level of competition and unfamiliar atmosphere would prepare her girls for experiences down the road.
Their biggest challenge yet came Monday at Canfield’s James W. Watkins Gymnasium where Cepin saw her plan come to fruition in the Falcons’ 58-46 victory over the defending All-American Conference champion Cardinals.
“We played two tough teams down there and just the physicality of what we went through down there prepared us for what we’re going to be going through down the stretch here,” Cepin said. “We went through a little bit of adversity in some of those games where we came back and just for us to sustain that lead that we had, because they fought and came back, and when you’re playing against a program like this, you just have to keep fighting and keep working hard.”
The closest Canfield (8-5, 4-3 AAC) got was 35-34 late in the third quarter thanks to a 13-0 run after falling behind big earlier in the quarter.
The Falcons (12-0, 7-0 AAC) came out of the locker room with a 24-18 lead but Megan Sefcik knocked down a 3-pointer on the half’s first possession followed by an assist to Maura Bianco the next time down the floor. Less than a minute later Sefcik stole the ball, drove down for a layup and converted at the free throw line for a three-point play.
The Falcons, all of the sudden, had extended their lead to a comfortable double-digit margin.
“We talked about taking care of the ball [at halftime],” Sefcik said. “The first half we had some careless turnovers so we talked about how every possession counts and how important that is.”
After Sefcik scored six points in less than two minutes, Sarah Melfe hit an open 3-pointer to put the Falcons up by 14 points.
However Canfield began chipping away at the deficit and benefited from six points off the bench by Emily Ellis. A 3-pointer from Ashley Kaleel put the Cardinals within one but that’s as close as they would get.
“They were at home, they weren’t going to quit, so we just had to fight through that run and come out and do what we do best,” Cepin said. “They’re a good program and have a great player in [Rachel] Tinkey, but I’m proud of my girls.”
With a little more than three minutes left, Sefcik iced the game with a step-back 3-pointer to put the Falcons up 7 points.
“[Sefcik] got open a few times, we messed up a little bit defensively, but she’s so tough to stop the whole game,” Cardinals coach Patrick Pavlansky said. “What are you gonna say? She’s the best player in the area and she proved that again tonight.”
Sefcik went eight for eight from the free-throw line down the stretch to finish with 25 points and make the final score appear more lopsided than it was.
“We practice those everyday and shoot tons throughout practice, so I’m pretty comfortable at the line,” she said.
Tinkey had a team-high 13 points for Canfield.
“Our girls are young,” Pavlansky said. “We lost to a better team, it’s that simple, and we told our girls that.”