Brown and McKnight lead Chanel over Mapleton 84-48

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By Ian Tayek

STONGSVILLE: The road to Columbus started Friday night for the St. Peter Chanel Firebirds as they took on the Mapleton Mounties at Strongsville high school in a Division 4 Sectional matchup. The Firebirds would be led by their junior inside outside combination of Lamar McKnight and Jo’Vaughn Brown to defeat Mapleton 84-48.

The Firebirds came out fast, just 20 seconds into the game Chanel junior guard Jo’Vaughn Brown drove into the lane and made a teardrop jumper to take the early 2-0 lead. Junior forward Arthur Jordan hit a 3 pointer at the 6:50 mark to give the Firebirds a 7-0 lead. Mapleton hung in there early as junior guard Brian Huff would go back door and make an easy layup, to cut Chanel’s lead to 5 at 7-2. Brown struck again for the Birds, this time with a layup off a Lamar McKnight steal. Brown’s points made it 10-2 Chanel, and Senior Nate Novak made it a 9 point game, when he was fouled while shooting an inside layup. After the and 1 the score was 13-4 Chanel. Brown then stole the ball and went to the other end and laid in a finger role to make the score 19-7. The Brown show continued when he drained a 3 pointer at the 2:05 mark making the score 22-11. Brown didn’t have the last laugh in the first half but another Chanel guard did, as sophomore Isaiah Chambers would drain a 3 pointer to make Chanel’s lead at the end of the first quarter 26-15.

The second quarter was pretty much the same for the Birds, as Brown would pick up where he had left off. This time draining another 3 pointer giving Chanel a 29-15 lead with 7:45 till halftime. The young guard would yet again make his presence known by hitting another 3 pointer. That 3 would give Chanel a 17 point lead 34-17. Junior forward Lamar McKnight would get on the scoreboard when he would hit a fast break layup to make the score 44-25 with 44 seconds left. Chanel would again beat the clock this time, when Junior Anthony Jolly would follow up a missed 3 pointer of his own and lay up his miss with 0.2 left on the clock to give Chanel a 47-25 lead at half time.

The 3rd quarter started out well for the Mounties as Huff would again go back door 14 seconds into the half to cut the lead to 20. But Chanel would end any hope of a comeback for Mapleton, as first Lamar McKnight would make an inside hook shot to make the score 49-27. Jordan Duke would take an offensive rebound and put it back in to make the score 53-29 with 5:10 left in the quarter. Junior guard Jareed Robinson would drain a 3 pointer in the left corner to give the Birds a 56-29 lead. McKnight would hit 2 inside jumpers, the second coming with 15 seconds left, to give Chanel a 69-32 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Chanel senior forward John Mosley would put the game away at the start of the fourth quarter. He would drain back to back 3 pointers, the second coming at the 6:16 mark giving Chanel a 40 point lead at 75-35. Mapleton wouldn’t give up in the fourth quarter as Huff would hit 3 3pointers in that quarter. Also senior guard Matt Shopbell would score 11 points in the 4th quarter, but in the end Chanel was just too much for the Mounties, winning 84-48.

Leading the way for Mapleton was junior guard Brian Huff, who scored a game high 22 points. Also senior Matt Shopbell scored 19 points for the Mounties.

“Mapleton played hard” said Chanel head coach Bernie Tarr, “They ran that back door type offense, which we have had trouble with before but we did an ok job against it tonight. We need to do a better job, to advance in the tournament.”

Leading the way for the Firebirds were the one two punch of Jo’Vaughn Brown and Lamar McKnight. Brown scored 15 points including 3 3pointers and also had 5 steals. “I’ve been working a lot on my form in practice and it all came together tonight,” said Brown. McKnight had 16 points and 8 rebounds on the night. “Teams have been packing it in on us, but now they have to start respecting the outside game too and that’s been opening things up for me,” said McKnight. Also for the Birds, senior forward John Mosley had 12 points and junior forward Arthur Jordan had 9 points with 6 rebounds.

“I think are guards did a good job tonight of attacking the gaps in their zone defense,” said Tarr. “They really opened things up for our bigs who did a great job inside and they also found the open man for a 3 pointer. In the end we just got to practice better and have more focus, if we don’t do those things then our tournament run will come to an end sooner then what we want.”

The Firebirds improved their record to 13-8 on the season, and will face Horizon Science on Tuesday night at 6:30. Horizon defeated Kidron Central Christian 100-86 on Friday night. “Horizon Science is a very athletic team, and what I like about them is that they have fun playing,” said Tarr, “They know how to win games, we have to be ready to play on Tuesday.”

Ian Tayek
igt1@uakron.edu