43
Tigers’ trio exorcise Devils
McDonald’s Rasile leads all scorers with 41
By Greg Gulas
NEW MIDDLETOWN
Springfield coach Steve French said he has several players who have the potential to score 20 or more points on any given night.
That night was Friday as three Tigers rippled the nets for at least 20 points against their league rival McDonald Blue Devils.
Drew Clark had a team-high 27 points, Evan Ohlin added 22 and Clay Medvec 21 to lead the Tigers to an 87-71 victory over the Blue Devils (0-2, 0-2) in a Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference game at the Tigers’ Gymnasium.
McDonald’s Zach Rasile was the one who put on the scoring clinic, however, as he led all scorers with 41 points, including 24 in the opening half.
Clark also rippled the nets for a game-high six triples, three coming in each half.
“Credit my teammates for getting me the ball when I was open,” Clark said. “We lost to McDonald both times last year so to start 4-0 overall and 4-0 in the league with a win over them is big for us.
“They’re one of the top teams around and we now know that we can hang with them. Plus, it gives us momentum as we move forward.”
In a fast-paced opening quarter, four points by Shane Eynon and triples by both Clark and Medvec staked the Tigers to the early 14-9 advantage, only to have Rasile score 14 points and help key a 9-0 run as the Blue Devils opened a 21-19 lead after the first eight minutes of action.
Three buckets from beyond the arc by Medvec and five points from Clark offset Rasile’s 10 points, including McDonald’s last eight tallies of the half as the Tigers (4-0, 4-0 Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference) pulled to within 40-39 heading to the locker room.
“The game plan was to stop Rasile as much as possible and then shut down the rest of the team offensively,” Medvec said. “They’re an excellent offensive group.”
A bucket by Josh Celli and five points by Rasile helped McDonald forge a 47-45 lead at the 5:08 mark of the third period, but the Tigers wrested control behind Ohlin’s nine points and Clark’s eight for a 62-55 margin with eight minutes remaining.
“We tried to push the pace early, but not get ahead of ourselves,” Ohlin said. “We needed to calm down when they pushed the tempo but watch our turnovers. This is a huge league win for us.”
“When you play McDonald, you have no choice but to play fast,” French said. “We were comfortable playing fast but weren’t attacking their zone. We then settled down and found our rhythm. We shoot a lot of three’s in practice so that’s a focus for us.”
A conventional three-point play by Medvec increased the Tigers’ lead to 70-59 at 5:30 of the fourth quarter, but a 6-0 run but the Blue Devils cut the deficit to 70-65 with 3:41 remaining.
That was the closest the Blue Devils could get the rest of the way as the Tigers closed on a 17-6 run with 11 of those points coming from the charity stripe to seal the victory.
Springfield canned 18 of 19 free-throw attempts.
“This was just our second game of the season and we have just two starters returning,” McDonald head coach Jeff Rasile said. “They hit four triples in the second quarter and we didn’t guard them, then went cold in the third quarter.
“We’re 0-2 but played and hung with the two best teams in our conference in Waterloo and Springfield. After playing these two teams, if we can clean up a couple areas then we feel like we can play with anybody.”