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Struthers’ best start in years continues in win
Struthers vs Edgewood
Gallery
By Greg Gulas
STRUTHERS
You have to go back to the 1998-99 season to find a Struthers basketball team with a better start.
Head coach Jim Franceschelli is hoping that the New Year only extends his team’s current run of success.
Andrew Carbon had a team-high 16 points, Jaret Jacubec added 12 — all from behind the arc — and the Struthers remained undefeated in league play as the Wildcats defeated Ashtabula Edgewood 55-45 in an All-American Conference, White Division contest Tuesday at the Struthers Fieldhouse.
With the win the Wildcats (9-1, 5-0) improved to 5-0 at home and remained atop the division standings while the Warriors (8-2, 3-2) had their six-game winning streak snapped and lost for the first time in seven road contests.
“This was a pretty good Warriors team, so our game plan was to work hard on defense and win the battle of the boards. We wanted to score off of our transition game and needed to hit our open shots, especially from three-point range,” said Carbon, one of four seniors and a four-year starter. “We have four seniors on the team and each one of us feels that it is his duty to take a leadership role.”
Struthers raced to an early 11-3 advantage on a triple and three-point play by Carbon midway through the opening quarter.
Buckets by Brevin White and Ricky Baldwin, however, helped Edgewood close to within 13-7 after the first eight minutes of action.
Carbon and Jacubec each nailed two triples in the second stanza and Struthers outscored the Warriors,24-15 in the period to forge a 37-22 halftime lead.
”We had some down years but stuck together, bought into coach Franceschelli’s system and this is the end result,” Jacubec said. “Triples are our bread and butter and we aren’t shy about shooting from behind the arc if we are open. While the league is our main goal, we feel like we have one of the better teams in the area so it’s district or bust beyond that.”
The Wildcats got off to a 13-0 start 18 years ago under the tutelage of former coach Joe Fuline. That team won the district title.
“That was a fun team to watch back then and coach Fuline had the entire group clicking on all cylinders,” Francheschelli said. “We know that we have the talent to make some noise this year and we’re probably a bit ahead of where I felt we would be 10 games into the season.”
A bucket by Kevin Traylor with 3:17 remaining in the third period gave the Wildcats their largest lead of the night, 48-26.
A 15-2 run by the Warriors, keyed by Marcus Ernst and Tie Rood’s 10 points over the next 7:14 cut the deficit to 50-41 with a little over five minutes remaining.
That’s the closest they could get the rest of the way as Ernst finished with a game-high 18 markers and Rood added 11 points, the only other player on either team to finish in double figures.
“Jaret is a pure, 3-point shooter and scoring from long range is something that seems to run in his family,” Franceschelli said. “As for Andrew, he’s been starting since his freshman year and we put a lot of pressure on him. He’s a tremendous leader who always responds by giving it his all, both in practice and definitely in games.”