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Sammarone’s fantastic finish bails out Canfield
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CANFIELD
Serena Sammarone stole the ball and the show for the Canfield girls basketball team Wednesday night.
The sophomore guard dominated the fourth quarter — especially the last eight seconds — as the Cardinals rallied to beat South Range, 44-40.
The Raiders led 34-29 with five minutes to play and 39-36 with just 48 seconds remaining. South Range led 40-38 when Canfield freshman Grace Mangapora stepped to the line for two free throws with a chance to tie the game with 11 seconds left.
Mangapora missed the first, but made the second to close the deficit to one.
That’s when Sammarone took over. After stealing the South Range inbounds pass, she drove to the basket and drew a controversial charge.
“I thought we had the call, he made the call, and then he didn’t stick to it,” said South Range head coach Tony Matisi. “Our ball, they foul us and we shoot free throws. End of game.”
Instead the young sophomore stepped to line made both free throws give Canfield a 41-40 lead.
“I wasn’t really feeling any pressure because we do special plays like this all the time in practice situations to prepare us,” Sammarone said. “And free throws are just, you don’t really think about them you just got to shoot them.”
Sammarone wasn’t finished. She stole another inbounds pass, got fouled and split two foul shots for a 42-40 lead.
The Raiders then turned it over again and Sammarone again went to the line, where she made two more free throws for the final margin.
Sammarone scored nine of the last 10 points for the Cardinals and finished with 21 points.
“I never dreamed about having a game like this and it really didn’t hit me during the game,” Sammarone said. “When I’m playing I just kind of zone out. I’m just playing. I don’t really think about what’s going on or anything like that.”
Sammarone was making her first start after an earlier injury. Canfield head coach Matt Reel was certainly glad to have her back in the lineup as she scored eight of his team’s 14 first-quarter points to give the Cardinals a 14-11 lead.
“She played about five minutes against East but this is first time she’s had extended action and she’s still nowhere near 100 percent,” Reel said. “She’s still getting back into the flow, but she’s a competitor and she just wants to make plays.”
The Cardinals led 19-16 at the intermission, but South Range started to click in the third quarter and took a 27-25 lead, then really began to take over in the fourth.
“I just thought we hung in there for the longest time and we tried to do that,” Reel said. “I was just proud of how we kept playing and playing and playing.”
Mangapora finished with eight points and a team-high eight rebounds as Canfield improved to 14-7.
“It was an amazing ending. I just thought it was a fun girls basketball game to be in,” Reel said. “I thought South Range is so much improved from the first time we played them. We did not shoot the ball well at all, but I think a lot of that was due to their defense. ... We kind of stole victory from the jaws of defeat tonight.”
Sammarone was elated after game.
“I’m really excited, this was a very fun game to play in and we expected it, being the game of the week and stuff,” she said. “It’s just exciting being able to pull off a win like this, beating a good team like South Range. It’s my first game back and it’s a good team win. I’m so excited.”
Junior Samantha Patrone had seven of her team-high 10 points in the fourth quarter while junior Madison Durkin had 10 points as well to go with her game-high 12 rebounds to lead the way for the Raiders (11-11).
“I’m happy with our effort — it could have gone either way,” Matisi said. “This was a great tuneup for the tournament.”