CANFIELD ON TOP IN THE CLASH OF THE CARDS
By Ty Bartell
CANFIELD OH- As the holidays are rapidly approaching, many high school basketball teams are trying to string together some momentum in what some coaches call the first half of the season, before the new year. Two of those teams trying to get their groove going are The Cardinals and…well…The Cardinals. The Canfield Cardinals boys basketball team is coming off a shared All American Conference (AAC) crown with Warren Harding a season ago and The Cardinal Mooney Cardinals, despite a lower finish in the Steel Valley Conference (SVC), had a nice tournament run last season that extended into March once again. Both those squads would meet at John Cullen Court in Canfield on Friday night in a clash of The Cardinals!
Feeling the energy of the home crowd, Canfield came out clicking! Finding some good looks and knocking ’em down early, putting Mooney at an early deficit with The Canfield Cardinals leading it 15-4 after a quarter. Down double digits, The Cardinal Mooney Cardinals were fired up in the second quarter nailing five shots from distance, three from Nico Genova and two from Ashton O’Brien, outscoring Canfield 27-12 in the second to flip the script and hold a 31-27 lead at the half.
Out of the half, Canfield was now the team with the hot shooting hand as they nailed down five 3’s in the third, four of which came from Dom Cruz! Off the backs of a 15-11 third quarter, Canfield would effectively tie the ballgame up with Mooney at 42-42 heading into the final quarter of regulation. In crunch time, both teams had big buckets that sent a packed crowd into frenzies back-and-forth! However, Canfield leading by a point got a key turnover on an inbound pass from Mooney that later translated into a Ben Weaver slam, helped put the finishing touches on a close and competitive 58-54 win for Canfield, proving to be top card in this battle!
Player of the Game honors went to Ben Weaver who scored 19 points with three 3’s, stayed competitive on the glass and had an emphatic dunk to help close out the game! Dom Cruz was also a sharpshooter in the game, scoring 20 points while hitting six 3’s! Tony Russo also had a nice night for Canfield with 11 points and going 5 of 6 at the free-throw line. Mooney was led by Nico Genova who had 16 points followed by Jibri Carter with 14 points and “A.O.B.” Ashton O’Brien with 13 points.
Canfield (2-2) will now look ahead to hosting Marlington (2-2) on Tuesday, December 19th in a battle with The Dukes. Mooney (2-3) will try to get back in the win column when they take on another AAC team, hosting The Boardman Spartans (3-2) also on Tuesday. Stay updated with both AAC and SVC basketball this season with live games, scores, stats, stories and more on YSN!
