Mangapora’s 24 powers Cardinals over AAC rival Tigers

By Ryan Buck

sports @vindy.com

CANFIELD

Thanks to a 16-5 run to open the game, Canfield cruised to a 76-53 conference win over All-American Conference, Red Tier guest Howland on Friday night.

Cardinals forward Mason Mangapora scored a game-high 24 points from every which way and nine Cardinals scored in a dominant performance.

After an emotional 54-44 home win over Austintown Fitch on Tuesday, Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy was anxious to see how his team would respond.

“You often worry about what you’re going to do against any team after a big win like that, so that was my biggest concern — to see if wee would be focused and play to our standard,” Muckleroy said. “I would have to say that we did.”

Jake Cummings scored six points in the opening quarter and Mangapora netted eight, including an old-fashioned three-point play with 3:45 left in the first quarter to put Canfield aheadd 12-2.

With 25 seconds left in the quarter, Luciano Romeo brought Howland to within 10 with a basket and free throw of his own before a Mangapora put-back beat the first-quarter buzzer for a 20-8 Canfield lead.

“We gotta jump on them,” Mangapora said of the pregame message, in direct contrast to the way the Tigers raced out to a 15-0 lead in the teams’ first meeting (an 82-64 opening night win for Canfield). “We gotta get out there and get a lead. They were up 15-0 before we knew what hit us. Luckily we came back, but we had to do that to them.”

Howland crept to within eight points at 26-18 after Tyler Tamarkin’s basket with 5:30 left in the second quarter. Two consecutive empty trips from the Tigers left them reeling and as close as they would get.

Mangapara made a basket in response, Mike Yourstowsky finished a Vince Leone steal with a fast-break layup before another basket carried the Cardinals (10-3) through another impressive eight minutes.

Yourstowsky scored six points and pulled down five rebounds in the second.

“We like to move the ball around, extend possessions and it gets better shots for everybody,” Mangapora, a junior, said.

Tigers senior Julian Lanier scored 21 points with 18 coming in the fourth quarter. Howland (2-9) made 19 of 47 shots and five of those came from Lanier three-balls.

First-year Howland coach Jason Lee oversees a program in an intense transition phase. The growing pains of a young team — three seniors — and a new system revealed themselves Friday.

“[Tonight] is what you call when you play a good program,” Lee said. “[Canfield doesn’t] have many off-nights. With our program and the ups-and-downs of the last 10 years, as hard as our kids want to try for us, when you go up against an opponent that’s well-disciplined, well-coached and they hit practically every shot. I can’t even imagine. Even their [junior varsity players] came in and started lighting it up.

“It was the kind of night when nothing goes your way.”