CANFIELD CAN CELEBRATE BEING ATOP THE DISTRICT
STREETSBORO OH- Canfield was voted the number one seed in the district before the brackets came out. But everyone in the program knew the real way to earn that top seed was to win the district. When the road to the championship was put in front of them, it was clear the path wasn’t going to be easy. Reigning district champions Salem, and the two seed in the district elected to go right at Canfield rather than have their own district where they’d be the top seed. That decision got every basketball fan excited before sectionals even began. It all came down to Saturday in Streetsboro as the two teams met in the highly anticipated district championship. The Cardinals found themselves in a back and forth defensive grudge match that ended in victory. The 32-26 win gave the Cardinals their first district championship since 2013.
The tempo of this game went pretty much how you’d expect from two teams that play such great defense. It took several minutes for the first points to even be put on the board. Kate Sahli finally broke the ice with a three 2 minutes in. Canfield was the first team to swing a punch. They broke out to a 18-10 lead, and took it in the locker room. Salem was not without a counterpunch though. They came out of halftime and went on an 11-1 run to take a 21-19 lead in the third quarter. From that point on though, Canfield’s defense locked down. The Quakers only scored 5 points the rest of the way. While Canfield’s offense didn’t have much more success, the 13 points they scored the rest of the game was enough.
Jenna Triveri was the Cardinal that stepped up the biggest in this one. She led the way for Canfield with 11 points. Sahli was able to tack on 8 points for the Cardinals as well.
Abbie Davidson gave all she could for Salem as the standout scored a game-high 16 points. Rylee Hutton was able to add 5 points for the Quakers who end the season at 22-3.
Canfield has won 17 straight games, and they’ll have a chance to extend that streak on Tuesday as they travel to Barberton for the regional semifinals. They are matched up with third seeded Marlington at 6:00. The Cardinals beat Marlington by 1 point in the regular season.
