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Undefeated South Range escapes close call
By MIKE McLAIN
BEAVER TOWNSHIP
The undefeated South Range High School boys basketball team will have less than 24 hours to forget about a 48-44 win over Western Reserve.
That might be a good thing.
With all thoughts on tonight’s game against Mogadore, Raiders coach John Cullen won’t have to dwell on the missed free throws in Friday’s fourth quarter.
Nor will he have to think about a couple of turnovers late in the final period that could have been costly.
Instead, Cullen will gladly accept a win that improves South Range’s record to 7-0, knowing it came against the talented Blues Devils (4-2).
“We really haven’t been in a close game, and we looked like it,” Cullen said. “Running our out-of-bounds play and giving it to the other team with just a little bit of time to go.
“Fouling 3-point shooters — we gave them chances to score when they should be stops in those situations,” Cullen said. “I’m not blaming the kids.
“It’s the inexperience factor. We only have one guy that had good varsity minutes last year [Jaxon Anderson], and he made all the foul shots down the stretch.
“They probably outplayed us, but we willed ourselves into that at the end.”
The out-of-bounds turnover Cullen mentioned led to a layup by Devils guard Ryan Demsky that trimmed the Raiders’ lead to 47-44.
Earlier in the quarter, Western Reserve, trailing 43-36, had cut the South Range lead to 43-42 on back-to-back 3-point shots by Nic Corbett and Riley Miller.
Anderson then made two free throws.
After two misses at the line by Miller, Anderson made two more free throws to push the lead to 47-42.
South Range’s Brennan Toy missed the front end of a one-and-one after Demsky’s layup. But moments later, a turnover returned possession to Western Reserve.
Devils coach Patsy Daltorio called a timeout with 24.2 seconds remaining to set up the final shot, which was a 3-point attempt from above the key by Demsky.
The rebound went out to Cole DeZee in the corner, but his 3-point attempt failed, and Mike Cunningham of the Raiders was fouled with less than one second to play. He made one-of-two at the line.
“We were one swing away from getting that knockout blow, but they finished the game and we didn’t make free throws, didn’t get rebounds when we needed to, and against a good team you can’t expect to win down the stretch like that,” Daltorio said.
The Devils took a hit midway through the third quarter when Jack Cappabianca picked up his fourth and fifth fouls on the same sequence. The fifth was a technical, which gave him a spot on the bench.
Western Reserve, which trailed 22-18 at halftime after leading 17-13 following one period, had a 27-23 lead when Cappabianca went down. The loss of his inside strength was pivotal.
“When he went down it was a fight or flight opportunity for us,” Daltorio said. “It was, ‘Hey, guys, what are you going to do? Are you going to step up to the plate or hang your heads?’ This senior-driven team stepped up to the plate.”
The Devils trailed 37-29 entering the fourth quarter.
Anderson led South Range in scoring with 13 points. Cunningham had 11 points and nine rebounds. The Devils, who were led in scoring by Corbett with 11 points, made just 10-of-17 foul shots.
“I’m proud of the fact that we didn’t play very well and still won,” Cullen said. “I’d much rather learn from wins than from losses.”