Heinenon’s OT free throws lift Boardman

By Steve Wilaj

sports@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

To Sebastian Heinenon, they were just free throws.

“Nothing special,” the Boardman sophomore said of his four consecutive makes from the charity stripe in overtime that helped the Spartans defeat Canfield, 51-48, on Tuesday.

But those four shots — which righted the ship for the Spartans in the second half and boosted them to a 5-2 overtime advantage — are significant. They secured what Boardman head coach Pat Birch called a “program win.”

“Beating a team like Canfield makes you feel like you’re doing the right things,” he said. “With beating Austintown the other night and Canfield tonight, that’s two good programs in a row and that’s what we have to do to get where we want to go.”

Canfield (10-4, 5-3 AAC Red) looked destined to steal Boardman’s big victory, though, storming back in the second half from a 25-13 halftime deficit. The Cardinals outscored the Spartans 16-12 in the third quarter and 17-9 in the fourth to send the game into an extra period.

With 11 seconds left in regulation and trailing by two points, Canfield ran the clock all the way down as guard John French was fouled shooting a layup as time expired. The senior then calmly sank both free throws to knot the score at 46.

“Our pressure really came up in the second half,” Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy said. “We thought we could give them some fits and it’d make them get out of rhythm. That’s how we got back in it.”

But Boardman (6-7, 5-6 AAC Red) regrouped, drawing from a previous overtime win — Dec. 9 at Liberty in double OT — to calm its nerves.

“Immediately we remembered the game against Liberty,” said Heinenon, who led the Spartans with 13 points. “We persevered through that and ended up on top and knew we could do it again. I made four big [free throws], but I knew I could make them and all my teammates did too.”

Heinenon’s first two foul shots came with 50.7 seconds remaining to put Boardman ahead, 48-46. A Brian Fryda free throw then stretched the lead to three points with 33 second left.

After a layup by Canfield’s Mike Yourstowsky cut the deficit to 49-48 with 16 seconds remaining, Heinenon knocked down his final two free throws before Vince Leone had his 3-pointer blocked to end the contest.

“We have a resilient group,” Birch said. “We overcame a really bad second half. But we stepped up and made shots and Sebastian did what he had to.”

The Spartans were particularly hot from the 3-point line, connecting on 10 of 15 attempts from behind the arc. Fryda added 11 points, while Jon Michael Dana notched 10.

“We play at East on Friday and I really feel like that’s a game where we’ll see if we’re for real,” Birch said. “We have to go on the road and get a good ‘W’ now.”

Meanwhile, Mason Mangapora paced Canfield — which hosts Warren Harding on Friday — with 17 points.

“They had us out of rhythm all night. Give credit to their defense,” Muckleroy said. “We got to be a little more composed at the end of a game like that, but we’ll learn from it.”