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Rockets rise above Blue Devils
Lowellville’s defense shuts
down McDonald
By john bassetti
STRUTHERS
It wasn’t so much a No. 3 beating a No. 2-seeded team as it was a team with a roster of nine inspired players going all-out to knock the feet out from under the opposition in a Division IV semifinal at Struthers Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.
Third-seeded Lowellville’s reward for administering a 56-36 beating of No. 2 McDonald is meeting top-seeded Springfield in a district final on Friday night.
After McDonald (13-10) beat Lowellville twice previously this season — 72-63 on Jan. 11 and 72-54 on Feb. 8 — Lowellville played possessed Tuesday night.
Its defense, scoring, rebounding, ball-handling and hustle were keys.
“To hold them in the 30s — I don’t know if that happened all year,” Lowellville coach Matt Olson said.
Micah Mamula-Zarlingo led the Rockets (17-6) with 17 points, while Jake Rotz had 14 points and a load of rebounds, especially off of and around McDonald’s glass. Point guard Matt Hvisdak added 10 points and plenty of driving dribbles.
McDonald’s Zach Rasile, a junior who is Ohio’s leading 3-point scorer, managed just nine points after being held scoreless in the first half. Rasile missed his first four long-range shots and didn’t score until 7:40 of the third quarter.
What started with a baseball-like score of 8-6 after one quarter, unfolded as a runaway.
McDonald seldom had the upper hand and led last at 12-11 on a Jake Portolese goal before Cole Bunofsky put Lowellville on top for good, 13-12.
The Rockets’ biggest lead was 22 points at 56-34.
With about 1:20 remaining, McDonald conceded victory when the Blue Devil defense stood in a soft zone without offering any resistance as Lowellville went into a stall offense.
“I think we hit some shots early, which, obviously, helped pull their zone out a little bit,” Olson said. “We ran a little bit of a change in our defense, which, I think, screwed them up. The last we played them, we played a box-and-one. This time, we kind of did a diamond-and-one [focusing on Rasile] and I think they had a hard time with it.
“They weren’t executing out of it, so we didn’t change it. I’m just happy for the seniors and the community to be playing Friday.”
The smothering coverage of Rasile was primarily by Hvisdak and Mamula-Zarlingo.
Of Rotz, his coach said, “He was the biggest player on the floor. I’ve been telling him all week that he can score inside and in the paint and take advantage of that, so he did.”
Also contributing were Dylan Durkin and Bunofsky, who had seven and six points, respectively, and were disrupters on defense.
It was a year ago to the day that McDonald was ousted from the tournament at the district semifinal stage by Western Reserve, 54-52.
“They had a great game plan to take Zach out of the game,” McDonald coach Jeff Rasile said. “Sometimes, they’re in a triangle-and-two with two guys on him and sometimes they’re in a diamond-and-one. We had open looks, but didn’t make them and we didn’t make the plays.
“It’s probably not our skill set to make those jump shots. This year we’ve gotten away by out-working teams. There are some things we can do better as coaches — I have to do better as a coach. I took some things for granted at the beginning of the season because of our success in years past. I thought some of those same things would carry over to this year, like the press. When we did start pressing this year, kids weren’t moving the way we needed them to, so we had to change, so, mid-December we’re changing our whole system. That causes some problems. Also, from a skill perspective, we probably need guys to work harder in the offseason so they can develop their ability to dribble and shoot better.”