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Wildcats come up short vs. Falcons
STRUTHERS
The Throwback Night theme for Struthers was more style than substance for the homecourt Wildcats, who, like their snug uniform pants, came up short against Austintown Fitch, 74-58, in an All-American Conference non-divisional game at Struthers Fieldhouse on Friday night.
Anthony Pangio had 21 points, Derek Gunter 17 and Jake Bullen 13 for the Falcons (9-8), who won their fourth straight game.
Struthers’ Ray Phifer, who was averaging 25 points a game, was held to 12. Although the Wildcats (10-9) were behind by 18 points on several occasions, they kept Fitch on its toes with 11 3-point goals. Austin Yemma added 14 points and all of Andrew Carbon’s 12 points came via 3-pointers.
Fitch was playing another game without regular point guard Scott Duffy, who is still recovering from mononucleosis and won’t be back for another few weeks. In his place has been Jaylon Sanders.
“He got baptism by fire, but he’s gotten better each game,” Fitch coach Brian Beany said of Sanders, a 5-foot-6 sophomore, who got his initiation as a starter against Warren Harding and Poland.
“You always want to be playing your best basketball towards the end of the season,” the fourth-year head coach said. “Throughout the year, you’re going to have some injuries, but we’re playing pretty well right now and we’re cutting down on turnovers and the ball’s going in for us from the outside. When we’re doing that, our inside game is good as well.”
Of the game’s 18 3-point goals, Gunter had five in what was one of his most memorable games, so far.
“It was my best shooting night so far,” said the 6-2 junior, who had 14 points by halftime. “I’m not trying to shoot the ball every time I get it because it’s not about me, it’s about all of us.”
Brian Beany, the player, had just six points, but they came at a crucial time after Struthers started to close the gap on the yard-long and baggy-panted visitors.
Beany had a pair of goals and two free throws to help the Falcons after John Sefcik’s goal pulled Struthers within 66-57. That’s when Beany, a 6-2 junior, cleaned up a teammate’s miss and made a reverse layup.
“You have to come off the bench looking to score, so I helped add some firepower,” the young Beany said. “I was ready and glad to help because it was a good team win.”
Jim Franceschelli said that the Falcons’ size was a big factor in the outcome.
“The main thing we had to do was be one-and-done on our shots, playing zone especially,” he said of boxing out on Fitch players, such as the 6-4 Pangio. “He really hurt us inside, not only in scoring but with his ability to get rebounds and then kick it back out.”
Franceschelli also singled out the damage done by Gunter’s 3-pointers.
“He really shot well tonight,” Franceschelli said. “Maybe that’s partially my fault, but we didn’t know much about him and didn’t see much of a scouting report on him.”
While Fitch made 13 of 17 free throws, Struthers was a poor 7 of 19.
“As you fight back from 18 down to get to nine, now you’re a little bit out of gas,” Franceschelli said. “We just couldn’t get a key stop when we needed it, even when playing man-to-man defense. We weren’t able to get the defensive rebound near the end.”