Fitch, Canfield fall short in Ravenna
All Valley Division I teams now eliminated
By ERIC FORTUNE
RAVENNA
It didn’t turn out the way that Canfield and Austintown Fitch would have liked it in their Division I district semifinal matchups Monday night.
Fitch was able to take advantage of Sabria Hunter’s size as she scored the Falcons’ first 12 points of the game. The only problem was that her teammates didn’t get their first points until the 1:35 mark of the second quarter.
That proved to be disastrous in the Falcon’s 62-45 loss to the Stow-Monroe Falls Bulldogs. Canfield dropped the earlier game, 57-39, to Aurora.
Hunter finished with a game-high 22 points.
“We felt good because we knew the girls were playing hard,” Fitch coach Dan Schnurrenberger said. “We just had to keep getting it into her as well. We had to make those jumpers at the end of the half. We just couldn’t get the complete in-and-out tonight.”
Those jumpers from Jada Lazaro got it within eight at the half, but Fitch (18-6) only got it within six a few times in the second half as the Bulldogs (21-3) had three players in double figures.
Schnurrenberger felt the speed of Stow picked up and affected them at times.
“Stow’s a pretty consistent team,” Schnurrenberger said. “We had to be as consistent or more consistent as them to be in this. They are a solid basketball team. At this point of the season, we know we are playing against complete basketball teams.”
In the earlier game, the Cardinals (15-8) played inspired in the opening quarter as well as in the fourth quarter when they battled back from a double-digit deficit to get it within nine in the final quarter before falling Greenmen (23-1).
After a back-and-forth opening quarter where the Greenmen held a 13-12 advantage, Canfield answered some early runs but saw things go south getting outscored 18-8 in the second quarter.
Shooting woes doomed Canfield in the second and third quarters. It was a common theme as they got good looks but couldn’t get buckets to drop shooting 6-of-25 in those pivotal quarters.
Shyanne Sellers led all scorers for Aurora with a 28-point, 13-rebound double double. Serena Sammarone paced the Cardinals with 16 points.
“I think the most underrated things about [Sellers] is how well she rebounds,” Canfield coach Matt Reel said. “She wasn’t getting a lot of opportunities for second shots. I thought she did a great job of rebounding as well as scoring. We knew she was a handful. A lot of what she did came from how good she is. I thought we could packed it in several times there.”
The Cardinals had their opportunities throughout the game but just couldn’t finish at the rim to make this a closer game in crunch time.
“It these games it comes down to who is going to get the easier baskets,” Reel said. “I thought in the first half they did a nice job of that. Unfortunately, we didn’t shoot it well. With our height disadvantage, we had to make it up from the three-point line and we just didn’t do that tonight.”