Anderson scores 24 points as Boardman wins sixth straight game

January 19, 2019 at 12:10a.m.

Anderson scores 24;

Spartans win 6th straight

CANFIELD

Boardman’s winning streak is bookended by beatdowns at both ends of 224.

The Spartans earned their sixth straight win Friday night on the road against Canfield, 63-39, in a place that has usually been a house of horrors for the visiting side.

“I’ve been in Boardman for 11 years and I’m 99 percent sure I’ve never won a game in this gym,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said. “It feels really good to come out and get one tonight.”

Boardman (10-3, 5-0 AAC Red) has been playing really well. After a 65-47 loss to Hudson on Dec. 22, the Spartans have decisively handled every opponent since then. The current streak started with a 66-48 win at Poland and through the next five wins, the smallest margin of victory has been 17 points.

“[After the Hudson loss] coach told us to find ourselves mentally,” Spartan guard Derrick Anderson said. “We were in a bad spot starting out and we had to find ourselves and come together.”

Anderson led his team in scoring Friday night with 24 points. The junior has been a key piece in the streak as he’s reached double figures in all six games and was a point short of tying his season-high. In the last four games, he has scored no fewer than 17 points. On the season, he’s averaging 17.8 points.

“What we’re seeing with Derrick is what we as a program have known for the last few years — that he’s a really good basketball player,” Birch said. He’s very tough to cover and I think a lot of the area is figuring that out too.”

Anderson scored 12 of his 24 points in the third quarter to put away the Cardinals (7-7, 2-1 AAC Red). He got his numbers by driving to the basket, spinning around defenders and using some step-back jumpers.

“It was the atmosphere and coach wanted me to attack and find the open man,” Anderson said. “It all started with defense — he wanted me to play harder on defense and lead the offense.”

Che Trevana and Ethan Andersen each put up nine points as the top scorers behind Anderson.

Canfield struggled with turnovers, coughing up the ball 18 times.

“Turnovers hurt us in the beginning and when you do that against a good team like Boardman, you give them a lot of credit,” Canfield coach Todd Muckleroy said. “We hung around because we shot the ball well in the first quarter, but sometimes hot shooting masks a lot of the deficiencies.”

Canfield had won four of its last five games heading into Friday night, with the lone loss coming in a 53-48 defeat against Warren Harding.

“Our schedule right now sets itself up to the fact that No. 1, it’s a league game. No. 2, [Boardman is] a really good basketball team and you want to see how you measure up,” Muckleroy said. “Nothing against the teams we’ve played, but they’re not Boardman.

“They’re the best team we’ve seen this year.”

Joe Bruno scored 12 points to lead the Cardinals. Kyle Gamble scored eight points in the first quarter — including two 3-pointers in the final minute, but didn’t score another point for the rest of the contest as he struggled with foul trouble.

With the win Friday night, the Spartans surpassed their 2017-18 win total.

“Our chemistry has gone up a lot and we all want to win,” Anderson said.