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Canfield surges to oust Hubbard
By ERIC FORTUNE
CANFIELD
It was almost like watching a prize fighter toy with his opponent. For nearly 16 minutes, the Canfield High boys basketball team withstood Hubbard’s best shot.
Then the Cardinals delivered a knockout blow and rolled to a 62-38 victory in Saturday’s Division II sectional final.
“I think we’re kind of developing that type of label, but I think we’re going to have to understand that we’re going to have to play a full 32 minutes to continue to win and advance,” Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy said. “I think tonight there were some jitters in that first tournament game.
“We were kind of fighting that a little bit,” Muckleroy said. “We got it back in the second half. We were a lot more loose.”
At least in the early stages of the game, the Eagles (6-18) shot well from the floor — 47-percent. The Eagles were able to get contributions from all their starting five to overcome an early 7-2 advantage by the Cardinals (19-4).
A bucket by Alex Greathouse gave the Eagles their only lead at 9-7. In the second quarter, they battled back from another deficit in a seesaw quarter.
With the Cardinals holding a 24-22 lead at the half, the Eagles became aggressive on offense, putting up five good looks at the basket within the first two minutes of the third quarter.
But instead of taking the lead with their opportunistic defense and offense, momentum swung to the Cardinals.
Three straight field goals on the Cardinals’ first three attempts gave Canfield a nine-point advantage.
“Cole Pryjma hits that [3-pointer],” Hubbard coach Rick Fox said. “We had wide open looks. They just didn’t fall.
“I know we surprised everybody here with the effort that we gave and we come out in the second half, we had wide open looks,” Fox said. “They just didn’t fall. It’s the nature of the game. We just have to make the shots.”
A 3-of-14 shooting performance added to the Eagles’ woes when it felt like Canfield couldn’t miss a shot, going 8-of-15 from the floor.
Brady Clark scored six of his 12 points in the third quarter when Canfield opened up a 43-28 lead.
“We made some shots in the third quarter to help us out,” Muckleroy said. “You have to credit our defense quite a bit in being fundamental in getting hands up in shooters’ faces and yes, they did miss some shots which did help us stretch out that lead.”
Andrew Midgley scored 15 points and Mike Yourstowsky 10 for the Cardinals.
“They are a very good team,” Fox said. “Four of those guys are three-year starters. They knock down their shots.
“They missed some shots in the first half, but I have to commend them,” Fox said. “They came out in the second half, they hit their shots and made big buckets.”