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Boardman bounces back against East
By Greg Gulas
BOARDMAN
Boardman High’s Gannon Murray has logged quite a few minutes during his varsity career.
He seems to most comfortable with the ball in his hands and the game on the line.
With his team trailing East by six points at the half, 30-24, Murrray scored 11 of his team-high 21 points in the third quarter to lead the Spartans to a 67-60 victory over the Panthers in All-American Conference, Red Tier action Friday night.
The win came just three days after the Spartans held Canfield to a scoreless first quarter, but relinquished an 18-point lead in a 36-32 league loss to the Cardinals — a game that Murray said was one of the toughest learning experiences of his scholastic career.
“We came out with plenty of intensity this evening in what I am calling our redemption game,” Murray said. “Coach [Pat Birch] told us in practice that we needed to be a better team than we were on Tuesday and must play smart all four quarters. [East] made some tough plays in the first half, but we matched their intensity. We accomplished what we set out to accomplish and that was get back on the winning track.”
Holden Lipke added 12 points and Mike Melewski and Alex Duda each had 11 for Boardman (2-2, 1-2). Malik Marrow dropped in a game-high 30 points for East (0-4, 0-4).
A triple by Lipke helped Boardman to an early 7-3 advantage, but three buckets from beyond the arc and 10 points in the opening frame by Marrow helped the Panthers pull to within 15-14 heading to the second period.
With the score knotted at 22, two buckets by Moises Dumeng keyed an 8-2 Panthers run as East finished the half with a 30-24 lead.
“Our message in practice was just respond and while it is human nature, do not dwell on the past,” Birch said. Coach [Dennis] Simmons does an excellent job with his team and they were ready. With us trailing at the half, the message was do not panic.
“We came out in the second half and executed while responding to their pressure. Gannon is a match-up nightmare for teams while Mike Melewski hit some big shots for us in the second half.”
In addition to Murray’s 11 points after intermission, Duda added five of his 11 points in the third as Boardman outscored the Panthers in the period, 21-11 for a 45-41 lead.
Holding a 51-48 lead with 4:35 remaining, Melewski then scored seven of Boardman’s next 10 points as the Spartans built a 61-51 lead.
“I felt confident shooting all night so when I had the open shot, I took it,” Melewski said. “We had excellent ball movement tonight, 10 times better than we did Tuesday at Canfield. Credit the coaching staff for this win because they told us to learn from the Canfield game and just move forward.”
Two triples by Marrow and another by Howell in the final 1:52 weren’t enough for the Panthers, who registered their 10th foul of the second half with 1:30 remaining in the third quarter, which put Boardman in the double bonus the last 9:30 of the contest.
“We’re getting mentally tougher each time out, but shot ourselves in the foot on more than one occasion tonight,” Simmons said. “We’ve gotten into foul trouble the last two games and it really hurt us. We’re a young team and it has been a learning experience.”