East tops Struthers at Covelli Centre

Marrow’s 19 points help Panthers extend recent hot streak

By BRIAN DZENIS

bdzenis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

It took a while, but East is beginning to get on a roll.

After downing Struthers, 79-71, on Saturday as part of the Lariccia’s “See Them Rise” High School Basketball Showcase, the Panthers have now won three of their past four games. East (3-10) started the year on a nine-game losing streak.

“We’re getting better. We know we’ve lost some games that we shouldn’t have,” East coach Dennis Simmons said.

“We play for March, although it may not seem like it. As guys get experience and start to get comfortable in their roles, we’ll go back through our conference and those are games that we know we can win, those are games that we lost by six or less that we’ll be able to get.”

A balanced offensive effort from the roster kept Struthers (4-10) guessing. Every Panthers player that stepped on the floor scored. Malik Marrow led the group with 19 points.

“Marrow was OK. It wasn’t one of his better games, he had to make an adjustment,” Simmons said. “They kind of focused on him and that was new to him, most teams don’t focus on him.”

“It was hard, but I managed to get through it,” Marrow said. “I found my teammates, gave them the ball, they did their job and I just stayed in my place.”

Ce’andre Backus added 14 points and Imoni Donadelle had 11 points. Despite getting the win, Simmons wasn’t pleased with his team. After taking a three-point lead at halftime, East managed to get the lead up to as high as 14 points, but Struthers managed to hang around.

“We really wanted to pull away, but we made too many mistakes and they shoot the ball well,” Simmons said. “When you play teams that shoot the three well, if you don’t take care of business and blow assignments, they’ll trade you a missed shot for a 3. That changes the game and you don’t pull away.”

Struthers coach Jim Franceschelli said things fell apart when his players decided to freelance on offence.

“It was frustrating. You’re playing well in the first half and then for three minutes in the third quarter, we just lost our minds,” Franceschelli said. “They weren’t doing what we were asking and that’s what happens when you try to do your own thing out there.”

Andrew Carbon kept the Wildcats in the game by scoring 17 of his team-high 27 points in the second half. Struthers’ Jaret Jakubec made four 3-pointers for 12 points and Alec Musolino added 11.

With 2:30 to play, Struthers began fouling to stop the clock. With both teams in the bonus, the Wildcats got no closer than seven points. The Panthers wen 9-for-15 from the charity stripe to hang on to the win and seven different players chipped in to the team’s 20 fourth-quarter points.

“We can go pretty deep, but we lack experience because a lot of those guys are young,” Simmons said. “They may score, but they make a bunch of mistakes.”

East can now claim improvement over last year’s 2-20 campaign. Its other two wins came in rematches of early losses against Howland and Lakeside. The Panthers will close out this month with rematches against Austintown Fitch and Canfield.

“The guys have learned how to play,” Simmons said. “Hopefully as we head down this part of the schedule, we start putting things together.”