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Cards nearly perfect in third
Canfield overcomes a slow start at Howland to roll to a 20-point victory
By ERIC FORTUNE
HOWLAND
Howland High School boys basketball head coach Jason Lee knew his team was working against a size advantage.
Despite getting hurt on the glass 18-3 by Canfield, the Tigers were within striking distance, down just three points in the first half.
Then the Cardinals enjoyed a near perfect third quarter before going on to Friday’s 69-49 victory.
“I think going into this season, we knew that rebounding was going to be a factor,” Lee said. “If you watch us, you’re think, ‘holy cow, they’re small.’
“But I look at guys like Connor Antinone [and] the height doesn’t make a difference because it’s that old verbiage, ‘it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.’
“I think [he] and a couple of the other seniors are trying to get that fight and mentality for the younger guys. They just don’t have it yet.”
After seven lead changes in the opening quarter, both squads were deadlocked at 15 with Canfield’s Mason Mangapora sitting on the bench with some early foul trouble.
“It allowed him to sit back and watch the game a little bit,” Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy said. “We knew with Sam DiGiacomo in there we could take advantage of their size and get some easy looks. They’ve both been playing solid and it’s a nice little one-two punch for us to have.”
Mangapora’s presence in the second half was huge after he scored three points in the first half.
Mangapora scored 12 of his game-high 26 points coming in the third quarter when the Cardinals opened the quarter on a 13-2 run and limited the Tigers (1-1) to three field goals in building a 16-point advantage.
“We were having a little bit of trouble with staying in front of them,” Muckleroy said. “They were finding some lanes and able to kick it out to their shooters.
“We moved to a zone defense to keep them in spaces and got guys closer on closeouts.”
DiGiacomo finished with a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double.
“I credit that to everyone who got into the game and did some good things,” Muckleroy said. “They knew full well what the offensive plan was [to] just to keep them moving a little bit whether they were switching between zone and man-to-man. I thought with the ball movement we could get some easy looks inside.”
The Tigers inched back within eight midway through the final quarter thanks in large part to some turnovers created going to a full-court press.
But the Tigers were unable to get closer as the Cardinals (2-1) limited Howland to one field goal over the final three minutes.
For the Tigers, Luciano Romeo scored 14 points and Mike Massucci 13,
“That’s a good program and not just a good program, but a great coach,” Lee said. “When you go down seven or eight on him, he knows he has you in a pinch. There is no way we can go back into a zone or just wait out the game.”