Clausell, Graziano lead Girard to OT win

March 4, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

CANFIELD

When the Girard High boys basketball team struggled to a 1-6 start, head coach Craig Hannon refused to believe that his squad, despite having just three seniors, couldn’t turn the season around.

Friday’s 71-63 overtime win at fourth-seeded Canfield shows he was right.

The Indians advance to Thursday’s district semifinal contest against Ursuline at Boardman High School.

Austin Clausell scored a game-high 23 points. His cousin Anthony Graziano scored 14 points while Anthony Backus added 12 markers to pace the Indians (13-10).

Five points each from Graziano and Backus in overtime helped Girard outscore Canfield, 15-7, to seal the victory.

Fifth-seeded Girard avenged last year’s 53-42 loss to Canfield, also in the sectional championship.

The Indians won for the 12th time in 16 outings and improved to 8-5 on the road.

“My teammates know when I am hot and they just keep feeding me the ball,” Clausell said.

“It wasn’t a very pleasant feeling,” he said of last year’s ouster. “I didn’t want that to happen again.”

Canfield (12-12) raced to a 9-4 lead behind Spencer Woolley’s six points, but Clausell’s 12 points keyed a 16-3 run as the Indians forged a 20-12 advantage.

The Cardinals opned the second quarter with a 17-6 run, keyed by Woolley and Zach Tinkey’s six points and five more from Jake Cummings.

Five points from Clausell and buckets from Austin O’Hara and Julian Berry helped Girard close the half on an 8-2 run for a 35-31 lead.

Momentum swung the Cardinals’ way in the third quarter as Cummings, Ben Shapiro, Jared Clark and Ian McGraw all connected for three points.

With 1:49 to go, the Indians trailed, 56-53.

A free throw by Clausell and Berry’s basket with four seconds left knotted the game at 56 apiece.

All of Graziano’s points in the extra session came at the charity stripe.

“All I did was concentrate on getting us the lead,” Graziano said. “Our loss to Canfield in the tournament last year has been in the back of my mind ever since.”

Hannon was pleased with his team’s scoring balance.

“We’ve had a balanced attack all year and have been pretty good from the free throw line,” Hannon said. “We were able to knock them down when we needed to in overtime.”

Canfield head coach Todd Muckleroy will need to replace four seniors next season.

“I’m proud of this team and the effort that they gave all season,” he said. “This program is so great because of the legacy of our seniors. They challenge the underclassmen to raise the bar.”

The Cardinals end the season 6-6 at home.