South Range locks down Springfield
By Brian Dzenis
BEAVER TOWNSHIP
The boys basketball banner hanging in South Range’s gym leaves something to be desired for coach John Cullen.
The shield-shaped banner is divided into two halves, one for league titles and one for district titles. The district section is blank and while there’s three league titles, the last one came in 1999.
Cullen wanted his team to think about that banner during Friday night’s contest against Springfield.
“If you look up at that banner, there’s barely enough ink to make it count,” Cullen said. “I told our guys, ‘If it gets bad during the game, look up at that banner and realize what we’re playing for.’ ”
The Raiders took a big step in rectifying the banner situation with a 58-39 win over the Tigers.
The quest for a league title is poignant because this is the final year of the ITCL. The 16-team league will fold at the end of this academic year.
“It’s been brought up so many times that we need to win the ITCL this year,” Raiders junior Brandon Youngs said. “It’s the last year and we’re going to do it.”
There were no concerns about a letdown following the Raiders’ 73-66 overtime win against then-undefeated McDonald on Tuesday. The Tigers (10-3, 6-1) had won its last 48 ITCL games and beat the Raiders in six consecutive contests.
“That game was so good. It gave us so much confidence coming into this game and after beating them, we can beat anyone,” Youngs said of beating the Blue Devils.
The objective for South Range (15-0, 6-0) was clear, take away Springfield leading scorer Jake Ford. Not only did they do that, but they also took away everybody else. Ford was limited to three points in the first half, which made him his team’s leading scorer as the Tigers trailed 29-7 at halftime.
“If there’s one thing I know about coach Cullen’s teams, it’s that they play good defense and they did that tonight,” Springfield coach Eric Fender said. “They took Jake out of the game in the first half and they really took us out of the game in the first half.”
Ford finished the game with 13 points and was an uncharacteristic 1 for 7 from the foul line.
“I think we wore him out a bit because he never misses free throws and didn’t miss any against us last year,” Cullen said. “He carries a big load and our kids did a good job making it uncomfortable for him.”
Springfield’s Frank Centofanti stepped up in the third quarter with 11 points in that stretch, finishing the game with 16.
“[Centofanti] has come along in the past few games and we have to continue to develop kids. Brandon Walters is doing a heck of a job leading our team in rebounding and he’s trying to get to the hoop as much as he can,” Fender said. “It’s about finding that third and fourth guy, which South Range has right now and they’re experienced.
“I’ve been in that situation and it’s nice and it’s their turn,” he added.
Youngs led South Range with 17 points and Dan Ritter was the other Raider in double figures with 12. South Range got the win despite making only two 3-pointers.
“We knew they would run a zone, but we couldn’t settle for a 3 because we they wanted us to do that,” Youngs said. “We pounded it inside and we finished.”
South Range is in the midst of its best start in school history. Its 15 consecutive wins shattered the school record of 10 straight victories.
“There’s no way this was going to be a letdown,” Cullen said. “They had this one circled for the year,”