VASJ’s quickness, defense stops Falls

March 10, 2016 at 12:09a.m.

Sembach, Tigers reflect on successful year

By charles grove

CANTON

Roy Sembach picked up win No. 400 when his Newton Falls Tigers won a district title last week, but he’ll have to wait until next season to get No. 401.

Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph (21-5) tore apart the Tigers in their 58-28 Division III regional semifinal win at the Canton Fieldhouse, outscoring Newton Falls 25-8 in the second half.

“That was by far the quickest defense we’ve ever faced,” Tiger guard Noah Suarez said. “Pretty much our whole practice was going up against a full-court press. We brought back alumni to try to simulate the speed, but there’s nothing compared to them.”

Suarez led Newton Falls with 14 points, hitting all four of its 3-pointers, and Jaden Walton added 10 for all but four of the Tigers’ point total. Sherman Dean led VASJ with 14 points while Kevin Roberts and Danny McGarry had 11 and 10 points, respectively.

To say things looked bad at the beginning of the game for Newton Falls (18-8) would be a severe understatement.

The Vikings leaped out to an 11-0 lead after Dean hit his second 3-pointer, forcing Sembach to use a timeout early. But the Tigers responded about as well as they could after the break, closing the quarter out on a 9-0 run to trail by just a basket after the opening eight minutes.

“I was exceptionally proud of that first quarter,” Sembach said. “You fall behind to a storied program like VASJ 11-0 and you think, ‘Oh man, we’re going to get beat by 60, it’s over.’ But our kids battled back. “Honestly, I was a little disappointed it was only 11-9 since we had a couple other little opportunities there where we could’ve had the lead.”

But that momentum didn’t carry over into the second quarter. The Vikings carved up Newton Falls’ 2-3 zone that Sembach said he had to alter to try to compensate for VASJ’s size and length advantage down low.

VASJ outscored the Tigers 22-11 in the second quarter to lead 33-20 at halftime. That lead swelled to 50-25 after three quarters.

“We thought they’d be better around the basket and on driving so we wanted to pack [the zone] in a little more, but that’s against our nature and it really cost us in the second quarter,” Sembach said. “It’s tough to change the way you play.”

And issues were compounded when the Vikings was able to get into their transition offense, pulling away from the Tigers for good in a lopsided second half.

“They’re the best defensive team we’ve seen all year, bar none, and they made it tough for us in the second half,” Sembach said. “When we’d miss they’d get a lot of run-outs and the game got away from us.

“It’s hard to coach around [their defense] when they’re bigger, faster and quicker. You’ve got to be disciplined and patient. I thought we were at times, but it’s hard to do that for 32 minutes.”

Sembach made sure to point out how far this year’s team came, having no expectations last summer and winning a district championship as No. 3 seed.

“This is a team that wasn’t expected to do much of anything,” Sembach said. “In the summer we were a very average basketball team and they won a district championship. It’s an unbelievable accomplishment.”