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Gunter, Pangio ignite Fitch’s OT victory
By BRIAN DZENIS
AUSTINTOWN
To say Derek Gunter and Anthony Pangio were key pieces in Austintown Fitch’s 63-60 overtime win against Boardman would be an understatement.
They were the only pieces.
All but three of the Falcons’ (7-5) points came from the pair, with Gunter scoring 34 and Pangio 26.
“I told the guys I’ve been doing this a long time — 20-some years — it’s one of the craziest stat lines I’ve ever seen,” Fitch coach Brian Beany said.
Beany’s son Brian had a lone three to finish as the third leading scoring Tuesday night. Neither Gunter nor Pangio noticed the points duopoly during the game.
“Usually we have at least four people who score 10-or-more points,” Gunter said. “It was surprising for me.”
According to the duo, it never felt like they were carrying the team.
“The other guys were working. Just because they’re not scoring doesn’t mean they’re not playing well,” Pangio said.
It was a tight game all throughout regulation. Boardman (5-9) led most of the way, but Gunter had his best performance in crunch time. He nailed three of his five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to force overtime. He opened the extra period with another trey to finally put some pressure on Boardman to respond.
“That was huge. It relieved a lot of stress knowing we had a three-point lead,” Pangio said “It was just a momentum change.”
Pangio then was fouled and went 1-for-2 at the line to push the lead to four points.
Boardman’s Holden Lipke nailed a three to bring the Spartans within a point with 42 seconds remaining. Pangio was fouled once again and he went 1-for-2 to give the ball back to Boardman with 24 seconds left.
The Spartans were fouled, but since they weren’t in the bonus, they had to make another inbounds pass with 12 seconds left. With that much time left, Boardman put up two three-point attempts, but neither converted. Gunter was fouled with 1.2 seconds left after grabbing the last rebound and made a free throw to create the final score.
“Coach Beany did a great job getting sets for [Gunter] in overtime and that was a big shot to hit with that first one,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said.
The Spartans have lost five in a row, dropping games against Howland, Warren Harding, Poland, Louisville and Fitch. They’ve been without one of their top players in Gannon Murray since he was injured in the Harding loss, but morale hasn’t sunk.
“I told the guys I was proud of them. They had a tough week and we challenged them to really come together and fight for one another,” Birch said. I know they did that tonight and we made some shots and did some good things, but we came in with the sense that we came in to win tonight.”
Lipke led Boardman with 21 points and Jon Ryan scored all of his 18 in the second half. Driving and kicking out passes to the open man, helped the Spartans deal with their height disadvantage.
“That’s our reality. We give up inches to most teams we play,” Birch said. “We really stressed trying to move the basketball and spread defenses out and create opportunities for one another.”
The game remained close all the way through. The largest lead was Fitch by seven at the very beginning of the game.
“It was a good game to watch. It was a lot of fun,” Beany said. “It was a little nerve-wracking, but I told our guys we didn’t play our best, but you have to win. A win is a win.”