Spartans rally past Panthers

February 22, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

BOARDMAN

Mike Melewski scored 13 points, John Ryan had 11 and Holden Lipke added 10 as Boardman’s boys basketball team overcame a sluggish start for a 60-58, come-from-behind victory over Massillon Perry on Tuesday night.

It was a much-needed, bounce-back win for Boardman (17-4), which suffered its lone home loss of the season Saturday to Cardinal Mooney. The Spartans improved to 9-1 at home with their seventh in eight games.

The latest came against a former Federal League rival.

The Panthers (8-14) opened a 16-7 first quarter advantage and then stretched the lead to 37-31 at the half behind Dominic Pipero, who scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the opening half.

Containing Pipero after intermission was big, according to Melewski, who scored eight of his points in the second half including the Spartans’ last five of the contest.

“Coach [Pat] Birch told us at the half that we needed to be more disciplined, stick to our assignments and not to give them as much room to shoot in the second half,” Melewski said.

Perry canned 10 triples in the game, opening a nine-point advantage in the opening frame when Pipero, Julian Jackson and Tevion Cleveland connected from beyond the arc.

A well-balanced scoring attack by Boardman in the second period, led by Che Trevena’s two triples and five points from Lipke and Melewski offset 11 points and three more triples from Pipero as the Spartans pulled to within six points at the break.

Ryan and Travis Koontz also added four points in the frame, marking their first scores of the game.

Ryan also had extra incentive to kick his game up a notch, receiving the first Mike Vaschak Memorial Scholarship prior to the game by the three game officials representing the Mahoning County Basketball Officials Association.

The award is named in honor of the late basketball official who died in January after battling brain cancer.

“It’s an honor to receive the first scholarship named after Mike Vaschak. He was always out and about in the community and everyone absolutely loved him,” Ryan added. “We started slow tonight but picked up the pace in the second half. They had eight triples in the opening half, but we were able to limit them to two after halftime by stopping the dribble penetration and not allowing any easy scoring opportunities.”

An 11-2 run at the outset of the third period helped Boardman turn a 37-31 deficit into a 42-39 lead, nine of their points coming on buckets from beyond the arc from Melewski, Sebastian Heinonen and Lipke.

Boardman held a 51-49 edge with eight minutes remaining.

A bucket by Coleman Stauffer with 5:16 left increased the Spartans lead to 55-51 before Melewski sealed the game with his team’s last five points.

“This was a huge bounce-back win for us and while it wasn’t pretty, it was a good gut check because we needed to be challenged,” Birch said. “This team has fought all season long and have just two guaranteed games left. I’m not ready for the season to end and the players want to keep playing, so we’ll take it one game at a time and just keep giving it our all.”

First-year Panthers head coach Chad Spurgeon noted that both teams had a bevy of opportunities.

“We came out and were probably a little protective in the second half, which might have been my fault,” he said.

“I might have slowed them down a bit, yet both teams had their share of missed opportunities. We disrupted them in the first half, but they were able to take advantage of their opportunities after halftime.”

Kasey Centeno added 12 points with Jackson and Cleveland each adding 11 points to finish in double figures for the Panthers.