Yappi.com writer
CANTON—The Titans opened up defense of their district championship in convincing fashion Tuesday night against the Louisville Leopards in their second-round game at the Canton Memorial Field House.
And it was a night that Louisville might want to forget about going into the off-season.
The Titans used two game opening runs to make their opening statement and finally conquered the Leopards 84-57. Half of the Titans 84 points came on easy lay-ups and point-blank jumpshots while they constantly harassed Louisville into a rash of turnovers and stifled them on both ends of the floor.
“We came out and passed the first test,” Triway head coach Keith Snoddy said.
The Titans opened the game up with a blistering run of 12-0 that included an assortment of steals and lay-ups from senior players Jamie Breneman, Jeff McCartney, and Linc Rottman. It was 14-4 when Louisville called a timeout to try and slow down the Titan attack.
It was to no avail. McCartney tacked on three straight lay-ups off Leopard turnovers and after a 22-6 first quarter, the rout was on for the purple and white.
“I thought if we came out and played like we could and play with that intensity we had, we could get up on them. Our advantage was in the backcourt,” Snoddy said.
Despite Louisville junior center Dan Boudler battling a foot injury, Snoddy didn’t think it was that big of a deal. He maintained his stance that he put the game into the hands of his backcourt.
However, he did praise Boudler, who led the Leopards with 16 points in the loss.
“I think he played pretty well to be honest with you tonight. I don’t think the injury was that much of a factor tonight,” Snoddy said. We were out to get the ball in transition and that is what we did.”
Rottman led the Triway warriors with 29 points while McCartney added 28. After a slow first quarter, Breneman added 10. The Titans await the winner of the Fairless-West Branch game, to be played March 8th at 8:15 p.m., the second of two district semifinal games.
Just because the Titans had everything go their way tonight, don’t expect Snoddy to allow his legion of Titans to get overconfident. He attests that every tournament game is a new game and with a new challenge.
“Every game is a battle and we’re going to look at it one game at a time,” he said.
On this night, Triway provided a great reason for Louisville and anyone else standing in their way to remember the Titans.
Division II sectional semifinal: Fairless 76, Springfield 50.
CANTON—Fairless used an early 7-0 run and 28 points by Kyle Wade along with 27 from Jordan Jennings to deal Akron Springfield a 26 point defeat in the second game of the Division II sectional tournament.
Fairless sixth-year veteran head coach Matt Kramer praised his team for the way they dominated the contest in their wire-to-wire finish. But at the same time, he cautiously turned his sights to the West Branch Warriors.“We’ll go back to work for a couple of days and get ready for what I believe to be a very good West Branch team and we’ll be ready to give them a good battle Saturday night,” he said.