STRUTHERS EARNS CONVINCING VICTORY
By Matt Maher
GIRARD, OH – What a night to be a Wild Cat as Struthers took to the hardwood Friday night to take on Girard and walked away with a convincing 58-36 victory. Struthers was led by solid defense and dominant shooting from the majority of the team.
It didn’t take long for the Cats to find their groove seeing as they led the Indians 18-9 after the first quarter. Grady Moore found his first 7 points while Lucas Patti connected for 5. For Girard Allen Hess-Cardona led his team in the first with 4 points while Dom Phillips hit a 3-point shot and Ahmad Curd connected for 2 of his own.
Things didn’t get much better for Girard in the 2nd where they were outscored 19-6. Struthers had five different players put up points in the quarter including 5 points for both Tommy Cole and Sincere Miller. Girard saw Ahmad Curd put up 4 points including a 3-point beauty and 1 shot out of 2 made from the free throw line. Struthers led 37-15 going into the break.
Struthers kept their momentum going after halftime when Cole hit two 3’s to finish out his night with 11 points and Jason Dukes went 1-for-2 from the line and put up a 2 to snag three more points to add to his total of 9 points on the night. Girard had better luck at the free throw line where Stephen Sims and Kaiden Clare both went 2-for-2 at the stripe, Sims would also put up a 2.
Girard found a nice scoring streak in the fourth but it came too late. Girard found 13 points in the quarter, by far their best on the night. Cam Herrick went 4-for4 from the line and Sims found 4 more points to finish with 8 on the night. Hess-Cardona would also add 2 more points to his team leading 10 points.
Despite a strong fourth for the Indians The Cats defense was simply too much for Girard to get past, combine that with the shooting display Struthers put on and you get the final score of 58-36. Struthers would have two players finish in double digits: Lucas Patti with 10 and Tommy Cole with 11 while Grady Moore and Jason Dukes both capped out at 9. Struthers (4-2) (2-1) are back in action when they host Howland on December 30th at 4:00PM meanwhile Girard hits the road when they visit McDonald as part of a girl-boy doubleheader on December 26th at 7:00PM.
