McDonald bounces back from first defeat

January 21, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

By ERIC FORTUNE

McDONALD

After breezing through their first eight games of the season, things started to get hectic for the McDonald Blue Devils with close games against Wellsville, Girard, and Western Reserve.

It finally bit them earlier this week.

It took a free throw from South Range’s Dan Ritter with 1.8 seconds left to send their game on Tuesday into overtime, where McDonald fell for the first time all season after being ranked No. 1 in the Division IV Associated Press Poll.

The Blue Devils bounced back Friday night racing out to a 13-4 lead less than three minutes into the opening quarter en route to a 74-51 victory over the Sebring Trojans in an Inter-Tri County, Blue Tier matchup.

“We had a tough loss on Tuesday night so we wanted to try and come out fast,” McDonald coach Jeff Rasile said. “That’s how we want to play the game.

“It was a good game Tuesday. Either team could have won that game. Unfortunately, we didn’t win it. I thought the kids responded pretty well tonight, outside of the fourth quarter. We were pretty much in control the whole game.”

Things could have gotten uglier much sooner if not for Robbie Rouse’s 10 points in the quarter that kept the Trojans (7-7, 2-3) down 23-11 after one quarter.

Rouse finished with a game-high 20 points.

“Rouse definitely did a good job of making sure he stayed aggressive,” Sebring coach Josh Scott said. “That’s his game. That’s something we’ve had success against these guys in the past with being able to get him the ball in space. We just have to do a better job of not turning it over and getting it up the court to our guys who can score at the basket. Tonight, we didn’t do that.”

At least early, Rouse’s success in the opening quarter seemed to carry into the second quarter.

The Trojans twice got it within eight after buckets from Rouse and Drew Kleinman made it 25-17 and then 27-19 halfway through the second quarter.

From there, Braedon Poole scored on three straight trips to open up a 33-19 advantage for McDonald (12-1, 5-0) . Then the Blue Devils used a 9-2 run to make it 41-21 at the half.

Poole’s 15 points complemented Zach Rasile’s team-leading 19, which included three 3-pointers.

McDonald finished with five players in double figures.

“Tonight wasn’t [Zach’s] best night shooting — he usually shoots the ball a little better, but he hit some shots,” Rasile said. He needed to make those shots.”

McDonald outscored the Trojans 20-6 in the third quarter as Sebring shot just three of 15 from the field. That coupled with 24 turnovers overall for the game saw them down 61-27 heading into the final quarter.

“That’s lost us games all season,” Scott said. “We thought going into the season that rebounding was going to be a big issue, but it’s been our turnovers and ball handling. I just need to get them more prepared for their press.

“We thought we had some good press breaks in and tonight they just weren’t working. So we’re back to the drawing board.”