Canfield finds second gear to defeat Niles

March 1, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

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Everything seemed to click for the Canfield Cardinals boys basketball team in their 70-42 win over Niles in their first-round postseason game.

Spencer Wooley led all scorers with 16 points while Brandon McFall had 15, Jake Cummings scored 14 and Zach Tinkey had 10 in what was a very balanced scoring attack for Canfield (12-11).

“We did a pretty good job balancing our offense,” Canfield head coach Todd Muckleroy said. “We got some inside touches, recognized some mismatches and when they wanted to crowd us in we were able to kick it outside for some shots.”

Ty’rese Williams scored 11 for Niles (6-17) while Corbin Foy contributed 10 in a game where the basket just seemed to be a little bit smaller for the Red Dragons all night. Niles head coach Ron Price, who was coaching his first game back since recently suffering a heart attack, said his team just didn’t make enough shots.

“We couldn’t make a shot in the first half and we dug ourselves in a hole on the road and that made it tough,” Price said. “We needed to make a lot more shots.”

Muckleroy said the plan was to make Niles’ shooters uncomfortable and not just let them spot up with toes on the arc.

“We told our guys we have to make their shooters work as hard as they can to get their shots because we knew they were very dangerous,” Muckleroy said. “Even when you’re doing a good job on them defensively they can still make their shots.”

The game was not always a foregone conclusion. Niles trailed just 8-6 halfway through the quarter until an 8-0 run capped off by a Ethan Kalina 3-pointer had Canfield leading 16-6 at the first intermission.

Niles was on the short end of an 8-2 run to begin the second quarter until a mini-run of their own brought the Red Dragons some life. Foy nailed a 3-pointer and a layup to bring Niles to within 25-15, but that was as close as it ever got as the Cardinals found another gear and ran away into the next round.

“They were in a zone [defense] early and we started knocking in some threes so they had to switch to man,” Cummings said. “When we started attacking the basket our shots were falling there too. It all worked out.”

Niles wasn’t shy about shooting from nearly anywhere from the court. While the Red Dragons were able to have a little more consistency on offense, Canfield was still able to exploit the missed shots and turn those into transition opportunities.

“We needed some stops,” Price said. “They’re strong and physical on us. We started pressing a bit once we were down about 20 and you have to know you can’t get it all back at once. Kids have to understand to chip away but that’s hard sometimes. Canfield didn’t give us much of an opening.”

The win means the Cardinals will host Girard in a sectional final on Friday at 7 p.m. The two teams got a glimpse of each other months ago. The winner will advance to a district semifinal at Boardman against the winner of Ursuline and Cardinal Mooney.

“We scrimmaged [Girard] early in the year but that was forever ago and we’re both totally different teams now,” Cummings said.