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Lutheran East eliminates McDonald
McDonald can’t
hold lead against
Lutheran East
By BRIAN DZENIS
CANTON
McDonald hung on to its principles, even if it may have ended its season
The Blue Devils made it to the Division IV Canton Regional by playing fast, pressing and sticking arms out to bat down errant passes. It got them a fourth-quarter lead against Lutheran East, but that was as far as it was going to go.
East held McDonald to four points in the fourth quarter as the Blue Devils fell, 63-48.
For McDonald senior Jake Reckard, there’s some pride to be had in taking a prep team that’s played against D-I schools all the way to the fourth quarter.
“They’re a great team and if we had done a few things different, the outcome would have been different,” Reckard said. “That’s a good team and we have nothing to be ashamed of.”
One of those things that could have gone different was the defensive game plan for the fourth quarter, which McDonald started ahead 44-43. The question coach Jeff Rasile had to consider was switching from a press to a 2-3 zone in order to protect that slim lead. He decided to do the dance that got his team to regionals.
“I thought we should stay with what we were doing,” Rasile said. “In hindsight, we could go to a 2-3 zone and make them shoot jump shots, but this is what we do and it’s hard to make that adjustment,
“If we did a 2-3 zone and they rolled us in the fourth quarter, people would say, ‘You were playing your game, why did you change?’ ”
“It’s a tough break,” he said.
The Falcons, a good pressing team in their own right, forced some early turnovers to start off on an 8-0 run. McDonald was able close the gap to three points halfway through the fourth after Evan Magill went 2-for-2 from the line and, after an East turnover, got another bucket.
But those were the last points scored by McDonald. On the other side, East’s Donald McCain got hot at the right time. He missed his first two shots in the second half, but made his next eight over the third and fourth quarter to finish with 24 points.
“What he killed us on were those 6- to 8-foot floaters against the press,” Rasile said. “He would drive to the middle of the paint and float it. The kid was a great athlete — what can you do?”
Reckard was the Blue Devils’ top scorer with 12 points and Magill and Matt Howard each scored 10 points.
McDonald finishes 23-4, tying for the second-most wins in a season.
“It wasn’t a goal for us. We wanted to win districts, get here and see what happens,” Reckard said.
This year’s team made its fourth regional appearance in Rasile’s tenure. Sharing a district bracket with a Lisbon team that featured four 1,000-point scorers made the team consider itself underrated as a No. 2 seed.
“I can see why [Lisbon] was picked to win. That’s a good team, but I thought Wellsville was overlooked,” Reckard said. “I can say that we were a little overlooked.”
Rasile has no regrets about a senior class that helped him cross the 300-win mark.
“It’s a great season, there’s four local teams including us that made it to regionals. I would say all of us besides [Warren Harding] are underdogs,” Rasile said. “I think the seniors had a great year. I think they had great careers. They continued to the winning tradition at McDonald.”