Canton Central stuffs South Range

March 10, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

SALEM

The South Range Raiders boys basketball team watched an early lead disappear and hopes for a Division III district title appearance fade in the second half in a 61-39 loss to Canton Central Catholic Monday night.

The Crusaders, the district’s second seed, had four players in double figures and held South Range to only 14 second half points.

The Raiders made only five field goals in the second half.

Central is threatening to sweep three of the top teams in the Inter Tri-County League. It dispatched Crestview in a sectional final in an 85-23 win Friday and now await the winner of tonight’s Springfield-Lisbon showdown in the other district semifinal.

“The first half we did pretty much everything we planned on doing,” said Raiders coach John Cullen. “Then in the second half they changed a couple things up. They did a nice job in their 1-3-1 zone [defense].

“They did a nice job in that and we were prepared for what they did [offensively] in the second half, we just didn’t do a good job of defending it. That kind of team, they rebound so well that when they do miss they get the rebounds and it doesn’t expose the fact they were missing.”

Raiders forward Garrett Anderson led all scorers with 19 points, but was more than offset by a balanced effort from Central.

Jordan Ranshaw came off the bench to score a team-high 13, forward Luke Stuffel scored 12, Christian Creamer 11 and Mark Mokros 10.

Ranshaw, a basketball forward trapped in a linebacker’s body, and Stuffel, another strong presence in the post, limited South Range’s inside game. Creamer and Mokros each knocked down two 3-pointers and stretched the Raiders’ defense.

“They have a nice mixture of bigs and guards,” Cullen said. “You can’t focus too much on either one. If you push out on the guards, they’ll beat you inside. If you collapse inside, they’ll shoot it from the outside.”

Anderson scored 13 of his 19 points in the first half as South Range built a 17-15 lead after one quarter.

He scored six second quarter points as well, but a Greg Dunham basket was the only other make their team could muster.

The Crusaders defense intensified and Mokros buried a 3-pointer as time wound down in the half to put Central ahead for good.

Stuffel scored six of his 12 in the third quarter as Central began to pull away.

“We’re not going to beat ourselves a lot,” said Central coach Matt Creamer. “We have a lot of guys who contribute and that’s every night. We had four guys in double figures and we have a new leader almost every night.

“That’s a big thing for us and I think that our kids do two things really well. They care about winning and they share the ball.”

Preston Stitt drilled a deep 3-pointer as time expired in the third to bring South Range to within 12. He answered Ranshaw basket on their first possession of the fourth with another triple.

But another try from distance was off the mark and Stuffel found Ranshaw on the ensuing fast break for a basket and a foul.

South Range went seven minutes without a field goal.

“We’re not a real zone[-oriented] defensive team, but we can be,” said Creamer. “We wanted to spread them out and see if they could make some shots and we rebounded really well in the second half.”