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Fitch starts fast to race past East
By Tom Williams
YOUNGSTOWN
Coming off Tuesday’s emotional victory at Poland, Fitch High School boys basketball coach Brian Beany wondered how his players would fare against a 10-loss team that’s better than its record.
Any worries that the Falcons coaching staff might have had evaporated quickly as the Falcons scored 23 first-quarter points and had a double-digit edge in the third quarter en route to Friday’s 71-55 victory over East in the Panthers’ gymnasium.
“That was the key,” Beany said of the Falcons’ quick start that produced a 23-17 lead after eight minutes. “The kids did a nice job of responding.
“Sometimes games like this can be considered trap games,” said Beany, adding that his senior-laden squad proved up to the challenge. “They’ve been through this before.
“They did a nice job from the get-go,” Beany said. “East is a good team. They won’t back down and they’ve been playing well.”
Anthony Pangio and Derek Gunter led the Falcons (9-6, 6-3 All-American Conference Red) with 17 points apiece.
“I think we could have done better,” Gunter said, crediting the Panthers for keeping the game competitive for three quarters. “We had a lot of defensive breakdowns so I think we could have done a lot better.”
That said, Gunter admitted, “It’s been a fun week.”
Scotty Duffy, Ronny Smith and Dom Difrancesco each scored 10 for Fitch.
Not long before the game, Panthers head coach Dennis Simmons had to adjust his plans when he found out that starters Shaundale Jones and Michael Ramey were unavailable. Also, Imoni Donadelle is out with an illness. The Panthers had won four of their past five games.
“It throws your mind off,” said Simmons, quickly adding that the Panthers’ main problem was being unable to stop the Falcons. “We hang our hat tonight on poor defense.
“We started off not finding our man, guys were in new positions not knowing where to go,” Simmons said. “We were able to score but we weren’t stopping them.”
Terrell Weaver came of the bench to score 19 points to lead the Panthers (4-11). Malik Marrow, the Mahoning Valley’s second-leading scorer to Ursuline’s Greg Parella, scored 15 points.
Pangio was a big reason why the Panthers struggled, pulling down 10 rebounds and blocking two shots.
“The last three games, he’s averaging about 19 rebounds a game,” Beany said. “He’s solid with rebounds, does a nice job after he gets it.”
At halftime, the Falcons led 36-29 but felt the score was closer than it should have been.
“The key in the second half was us going to the 2-3 zone,” Beany said. “In the first half, they were penetrating on us, the majority of their points came from taking it to the paint. Us going to that zone basically made them play from the outside.”
The Panthers missed 24 shots in the second half, 13 from outside the arc.
“We’re a really good rebounding team,” said Beany, saying the Falcons are averaging 33. “Pretty good chance that if that shot goes up and it’s missed, we’re pretty confident our guys are going to get that rebound.”