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Staying alive: McDonald holds off Lowellville
STRUTHERS
Thanks to leap year, the McDonald-Lowellville boys tournament game missed March by one day.
But, thanks to the up-tempo play and frantic finish, the Division IV district semifinal won by McDonald, 56-53, was Monday Madness.
Despite his litany of reasons for the close finish after leading by 14, McDonald coach Jeff Rasile capsulized his expanded explanation to this: “We made enough plays down the stretch to win the game.”
Rasile said that his second-seeded Blue Devils (22-3) were averaging 89 points, but Monday’s simmering sizzler may have been a season-low.
“We knew this was going to be a little bit lower because it’s tournament basketball, but we’re excited and fortunate to have beaten a good team two out of three,” he said. “At this point, it’s win and move on.”
Rasile said that McDonald’s upcoming game on Friday against the winner of tonight’s Lisbon-Wellsville game will be the coach’s 13th straight district final appearance — 12 with McDonald and one with Champion.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t won enough of them, but maybe we can come out on top,” Rasile said.
Jake Reckard led the winners with 18 points, while sophomore Braedon Poole added 15.
“He can do a lot of things,” Rasile said of the 6-foot-2 Poole. “He’s a special player.”
Speaking of special, Reckard has been playing varsity since his freshman year and he’s won 82 games in four years.
“He’s the all-time leader in wins [for an individual] in McDonald history,” said Rasile, who also stressed the importance of 6-4 Matt Howard.
“We have three losses this year [Girard, Lowellville, Lisbon] and, in all three, Matt fouled out,” Rasile said. “We don’t have much size outside of Matt, so we’ve got to have Matt in the game.”
McDonald lost to top-seeded Lisbon a few weeks ago after leading by one with a minute left.
The Blue Devils led the Rockets 10-0 and later 41-27 in the third quarter, but Lowellville twice got within two, 50-48 and 52-50 with less than a minute to play.
To started the fourth quarter, McDonald went 0 for 10 from the field.
“We can’t control shots, but we can control rebounding and silly turnovers,” Rasile said of a lack of rebounds and throwing the ball out of bounds on fast breaks that contributed to the close ending. “All we’ve got to do is hold the ball and they’ve got to foul us and then we’re in the double-bonus [which came at 2:01].”
Cole Beatty led Lowellville with 14 points, 14 rebounds and nine blocked shots, while Vince Hensperger also had 14 points.
“We got off to a bad start and had to dig out from a hole and claw our way back and did what we had to do to get back in the game,” said Lowellville coach Vince Nittoli.
“The last time we played them at home [Lowellville won, 77-63] we got down 9-0 to start the game, then made a run and took the lead and never looked back. That’s the last thing I wanted tonight, but it happened and we had to scrape our way back and I’m proud of my kids for their effort.”
Tyler Hetmanski didn’t have anything to show in the scorebook, but the 5-9 senior gave a double-digit effort, defensively.
“The kids didn’t want the season to end,” Nittoli said. “They saw the clock and they saw the score and knew it was now-or-never. My starting five are seniors and they know that this is it for them. They were going all-out and I commend them and am grateful tonight and all season.”
Of Beatty, Nittoli said, “Every night all season, he’s shown up on the glass, offensively and defensively. He’s been our workhorse and we work around him. He’s a great team player.”