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Yappi.com writer CANTON-Cleveland John F. Kennedy soared into the Canton Civic Center riding high on a 20-game winning streak and champions of the Solon district tournament. Against North Canton Hoover, the high-flying Eagles were brought back to earth by a 20-4 first-quarter assault along with a pivotal 26-7 fourth quarter that sent the Vikings into Friday night's Canton regional championship game against the Wadsworth Grizzlies, who defeated Mentor 49-38 in the second game of the doubleheader. Friday's regional title game will be a rematch of an early-season meeting captured by the Vikings 60-52 in the season-opener for both teams. This time, the stakes are higher as the winner of this game will be going to the Value City Arena in Columbus for the Ohio Division I girls state final four against the winner of the Norwalk regional championship between Solon (21-3) or Amherst Steele (23-1) at 8:00 p.m. The win was also a pleasing one for senior guard Amber Witt and sophomore forward Brittany Orban. Witt scored 26 points as she vaulted past the 1,000-point marker while Orban scored 24 points and surpassed Karen Tice's mark for the most points in a single season. Orban has scored 505 points this year. When asked about her thoughts about her personal achievement, she was speechless for a brief second before responding. The shocked expression on her face told the story. "That is awesome to have scored 1,000 points. I wasn't aware of that," she said, humbly. "I am so excited. I didn't have a clue that it happened!" Orban was quick to defer the credit of her accomplishment to the rest of her teammates. "We play as a team. Everybody on this team can step up," she said. Hoover started the game by connecting on three lay-ups and a three-pointer to start the Vikings on an 11-0 run. Wittscored nine points on that run. The Eagles went 3:30 without a basket before Deaundra Bremond's driving lay-up gave the Eagles their first two points of the game. After another JFK lay-up, the Vikings went on another scoring flurry in the form of a 7-0 run that left the Vikings leading 20-4 after the first quarter. The rout was on, or was it? The Eagles had the edge for the second quarter by a score of 19-16 but they still trailed 39-20 at intermission. In a spirited third quarter, the Eagles got themselves back into high gear with an 8-0 run, forcing Vikings floor leader Paul Wackerly to call a full timeout with 2:31 left in the quarter. The Vikings led 52-40 after three quarters. Although they landed their best punches in the quarter but were unable to deliver the knockout blow. The Vikings harassed the Eagles into a dismal fourth-quarter shooting effort. The Eagles converted only 3 of 18 attempted shots in the last quarter and the Vikings turned out the lights with 11 of 18 shooting in the fourth quarter, at one point hitting five straight field goals. "Basketball is a game of runs. JFK had a nice run in the third quarter and we knew that we had to put a run together of our own and we did that," Wackerly said. "We won that first game but it was the first game of the regular season," he said. "With the atmosphere of a regional championship, this game is for all the marbles." Cleveland John F. Kennedy soared into Canton with a 20-game winning streak. It was to be the end of the line for an excellent 2006 campaign. Congratulations to the Seniors for an outstanding season! STATS Field goals: North Canton Hoover 30/59 (51%), Cleveland JFK 19/67 (28%). Three-point goals: North Canton Hoover 1/1 (100%), Cleveland JFK 6/25 (24%). Free throws: North Canton Hoover 17/21 (81%), Cleveland JFK 3/4 (75%). Turnovers: North Canton Hoover 24, Cleveland JFK 22. Fouls: North Canton Hoover 10, Cleveland JFK 24. Rebounds: North Canton Hoover 38, Cleveland JFK 24.
RECORDS: North Canton Hoover 22-2, Cleveland John F. Kennedy 21-2 Canton Division I girls regional: Wadsworth 49, Mentor 38 CANTON-Wadsworth senior guard Emily Brede and her team were able to take care of business against the Mentor Cardinals. Two three pointers by Brede on the left and right corners on the floor triggered a game-turning 6-0 run that gave the Grizzlies a commanding 33-24 lead in the third quarter. Mentor did not get any closer than four the rest of the way as Wadsworth advanced to challenge North Canton Hoover for the Canton Division I regional championship Friday night at the Civic Center. "Those three point shots were huge. The first one staggered them and the second one finished them," Brede said of her bombs. "Both of them hit nothing but net." "I'll tell you this. When Emily gets set, she can be hot and streaky," first-year Grizzlies general Andrew Booth said. "We expect her to be on and when she gets hot, Emily can be a killer." Mentor head coach Mark Chicone summed up Brede's game-deciding three-point buckets in eight words. "Brede hit two threes and that was it," he said of the decisiveness of the shots. Wadsworth took no prisoners as they were taking care of business. Next up: Hoover. |
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