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McDonald tops Springfield to open season
By ERIC FORTUNE
McDONALD
Last season, the Springfield High School boys basketball team posted 24 straight wins before a cold shooting night ended their season in the district final against Canton Central Catholic.
It didn’t take quite as long for the Tigers to lose their first game this season. On Friday, McDonald defeated Springfield, 93-86 in their season opener.
It wasn’t shooting woes that did the Tigers in as they shot 30-of-58 with Graham Mincher finishing with a game-high 41 points.
The Blue Devils did just enough right defensively and moved the ball efficiently to earn the victory.
“One thing we knew coming in was that we were going to get a competitive game,” Springfield coach Eric Fender said. “They are a very good team and are going to get a lot of wins this year.
“Our biggest thing was would be able to handle their press for 32 minutes,” Fender said. “I think we did well. I don’t think we handled it for 32 minutes, but I’ll give our guys credit, we competed.
“We did something offensively that they weren’t ready for.”
The Blue Devils continued with what has made them effective and a thorn in the side of their opposition for the last decade.
“It’s right where we thought we’d be,” McDonald coach Jeff Rasile said. “I’m hard on the kids, but the reality is, we knew they’d come in with a great gameplan.
“We knew they were returning their leading scorer [Mincher] from the last two years,” Rasile said. “They had the whole month to prepare for us and they did a great job.”
After the an opening quarter that featured six lead changes, the Blue Devils seemed poised to blow the game open after a Jake Reckard trey made it 35-24.
Instead, the Tigers responded with a 19-5 run to end the quarter and held a 43-40 lead at the half.
“There were a couple of times during the game where I thought maybe we could have took it to them and we didn’t do that,” Rasile said. “It was disappointing.
“We didn’t rebound the ball,” Rasile said. “Then Mincher ate us alive. Jake is one heck of an athlete but he has to be able to go out there and defend him. At times he was able to do that and times he wasn’t.
“We expect more form Jake.”
To start the second half, the Blue Devils were methodical moving the ball around which resulted in them getting high percentage shots in the paint. They made their first eight field goals of the quarter and finished 10-of-15 overall as they took a 66-62 lead into the final quarter.
“We fell in love with the three early which is what we want to, but all we did in the first half was pass and stand,” Rasile said. “So those shots were contested.
The Tigers shot 6-of-11 in the final quarter and 18-of-32 for the game from the charity stripe.
“They got a lot of easy lay-ups,” Fender said. “That is something we have to clean up defensively which we will over time. One of the biggest things that hurt us was our free throws. We missed the front of some one-and-ones. That can change game a little bit.”