Published: Saturday, February 10, 2007
Carbon fuels crunch time
Canfield's 37-32 win over Niles kept the Cards on top in the MAC standings.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NILES — Canfield High's Joe Carbon took control of the Cardinals basketball game against Niles in the final period. When he was through, the Cardinals had a 37-32 victory Friday night in a Metro Athletic Conference contest.
Carbon scored 16 points to lead all scorers, but he had 13 of them in the final quarter as Canfield (14-2, 10-1 MAC) rallied from a 26-21 deficit to post the victory.
The win keeps the Cardinals one game on top in the standings with four games remaining, all of them on the road.
The victory also gives them a split with the Red Dragons, who had won earlier this year in Canfield.
"Carbon is very capable of doing what he did tonight," Canfield High coach John Cullen said. "But he also has moments like he did in the first half where he was kind of stuck in the mud for us.
"In the second half he relied on his fundamentals and that was the difference," Cullen said. "You got to give Niles a lot of credit, they played well tonight."
While Carbon was the only Cardinal in double figures, senior Pat Bellish came up with three clutch free throws in the final minute that helped put the game away.
Carbon and Bellish were the only Cardinals who scored in the final quarter.
Senior Justin Allen sparked Niles with 12 points, seven of them in the final quarter.
He and Carbon went back and fourth in the early going of the final period as Carbon scored the first eight points and Allen had the first six for Niles.
Shooting substandard
"It was a great defensive effort tonight," Niles coach Rick Kover said. "This team kind of feeds off their defensive play, but we are also not a very good shooting team and it cost us at the end."
Niles made just 10 of 32 shots from the field, while Canfield wasn't a whole lot better, hitting on 12 of 34 attempts.
"Almost all of our games have been pretty low scoring because we shoot only 34 percent and 25 percent from the 3-point line," Kover said.
Niles (10-7, 6-5) jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Red Dragons went nearly four minutes before scoring again an fell behind 8-6 at the end of the quarter.
The Cardinals score both of their 3-point goals in the second quarter and they came back-to-back from Sean Baker and Matt Keating to pull the Cardinals to a 14-8 advantage.
Niles came back to make five of six free throws in the final two minutes to close the gap to 17-15 at halftime.
The Red Dragons' defense took over in the third quarter as they held the Cardinals to just four points and behind the play of Allen and a 3-pointer by Sean Cleary and took a 26-21 lead going to the final eight minutes.
Carbon takes over
But then Carbon took over in the final quarter.
He scored the first 13 points for Canfield, but Allen was adding six along with him. Still, the Cardinals took a 34-32 lead with 1:34 remaining.
The Dragons made a key turnover with 1:09 left and Bellish made them pay with a free throw with 55 seconds left for a 35-32 lead.
After Cleary missed a long 3-point shot, Alex Swick rebounded and was fouled but missed the free throw with 23.6 seconds.
Carbon got the rebound, but was called for traveling and Niles called timeout with 8.6 seconds left.
The Dragons threw the ball away on the inbounds pass and Canfield heaved a long pass to Bellish who made a great catch and was fouled with 4.7 seconds and made both shots to clinch the victory.
mollica@vindy.com
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Canfield's 37-32 win over Niles kept the Cards on top in the MAC standings.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
NILES — Canfield High's Joe Carbon took control of the Cardinals basketball game against Niles in the final period. When he was through, the Cardinals had a 37-32 victory Friday night in a Metro Athletic Conference contest.
Carbon scored 16 points to lead all scorers, but he had 13 of them in the final quarter as Canfield (14-2, 10-1 MAC) rallied from a 26-21 deficit to post the victory.
The win keeps the Cardinals one game on top in the standings with four games remaining, all of them on the road.
The victory also gives them a split with the Red Dragons, who had won earlier this year in Canfield.
"Carbon is very capable of doing what he did tonight," Canfield High coach John Cullen said. "But he also has moments like he did in the first half where he was kind of stuck in the mud for us.
"In the second half he relied on his fundamentals and that was the difference," Cullen said. "You got to give Niles a lot of credit, they played well tonight."
While Carbon was the only Cardinal in double figures, senior Pat Bellish came up with three clutch free throws in the final minute that helped put the game away.
Carbon and Bellish were the only Cardinals who scored in the final quarter.
Senior Justin Allen sparked Niles with 12 points, seven of them in the final quarter.
He and Carbon went back and fourth in the early going of the final period as Carbon scored the first eight points and Allen had the first six for Niles.
Shooting substandard
"It was a great defensive effort tonight," Niles coach Rick Kover said. "This team kind of feeds off their defensive play, but we are also not a very good shooting team and it cost us at the end."
Niles made just 10 of 32 shots from the field, while Canfield wasn't a whole lot better, hitting on 12 of 34 attempts.
"Almost all of our games have been pretty low scoring because we shoot only 34 percent and 25 percent from the 3-point line," Kover said.
Niles (10-7, 6-5) jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Red Dragons went nearly four minutes before scoring again an fell behind 8-6 at the end of the quarter.
The Cardinals score both of their 3-point goals in the second quarter and they came back-to-back from Sean Baker and Matt Keating to pull the Cardinals to a 14-8 advantage.
Niles came back to make five of six free throws in the final two minutes to close the gap to 17-15 at halftime.
The Red Dragons' defense took over in the third quarter as they held the Cardinals to just four points and behind the play of Allen and a 3-pointer by Sean Cleary and took a 26-21 lead going to the final eight minutes.
Carbon takes over
But then Carbon took over in the final quarter.
He scored the first 13 points for Canfield, but Allen was adding six along with him. Still, the Cardinals took a 34-32 lead with 1:34 remaining.
The Dragons made a key turnover with 1:09 left and Bellish made them pay with a free throw with 55 seconds left for a 35-32 lead.
After Cleary missed a long 3-point shot, Alex Swick rebounded and was fouled but missed the free throw with 23.6 seconds.
Carbon got the rebound, but was called for traveling and Niles called timeout with 8.6 seconds left.
The Dragons threw the ball away on the inbounds pass and Canfield heaved a long pass to Bellish who made a great catch and was fouled with 4.7 seconds and made both shots to clinch the victory.
mollica@vindy.com
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Canfield High's Joe Carbon took control of the Cardinals basketball game against Niles in the final period. When he was...
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