by EUCLID, Ohio- Mentor head coach Bob Krizancic explained to his team Saturday night that he has been apart of the district final a combined 25 times, both as a player and a coach in his basketball career. He knows just how special each moment is and with time, it seems to get better for him and the Mentor Cardinals.
“I’ve been just so fortunate and it gets better because of this feeling right here,” Krizancic said. “This is how good it is. It gets better and more nervous. Our guys were prepared for this game.”
After trailing most of the second half, the Mentor Cardinals were able to push past Brush– largely in part of the team’s free-throw shooting down the stretch– 71-69 to capture back-to-back district championships from the Arcs.
“We weren’t nervous,” Floriea said of his team when they were down seven points midway through the fourth quarter. “We weren’t nervous at all. We all just kind of looked at each other and agreed that we’re not losing. We’ve worked too hard all year”
With just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Brush led 64-58. From there, Mentor would go on a 6-0 run following Luke Chicone’s two successful free throws to tie the game up at 64. Forty seconds later, Chicone buried two more free throws to give the Cardinals its first lead of the quarter. The 5-foot-10 guard would connect on 7-of-8 free throws in the fourth quarter and 11-of-12 for the game to lead Mentor with 22 points.
“Coach K told us in the locker room, ‘Heart over height,'” Chicone said. “He’d take heart over height every day of the week. I thought we brought a lot of heart.”
Floriea finished with 20 points followed up with Chad Rogers’ 21 points and eight rebounds. As a team, the Cardinals made 18-of-21 free throws during the win.
As for Brush, John Hugley led the way with a game-high 35 points and 15 rebounds. Sophomore guard Elmore James contributed with 23 points along with Corey Floyd’s six points off the bench for the Arcs.
“Our kids played hard,” head coach Chet Mason said. “You can’t ask for nothing more… It’s hard because you know how hard your kids fought.”
Mentor junior guard Kyle Culler drew two charges and forced a turnover on the first couple of possessions for Brush to help lead Mentor to a slight edge early on. Mentor gained steam and ended the first quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 13-9 lead after the first quarter.
Mentor’s lead in the first half got as high as nine points, but stellar play from John Hugley and Elmore James cut down the deficit. The Cardinals took a 33-31 lead heading into halftime.
The second half is when the Arcs were able to get the upper hand. Mentor had no answer as they trailed by as much as eight points throughout the third quarter. That’s when Floriea knew experience would kick in.
While trailing much of the second half, Mentor was able to weather the storm possession by possession, starting with players like Rogers, Caleb Piks, Chicone and Floriea helping out on the defensive side of the ball guarding players like Hugley and James.
“You can’t beat experience,” he said. “Our guys have been here before and nobody panicked and we got the ball to the right people and got the ball to the hole.”
Next in line for the Cardinals is Medina, a team they shared the GCC championship with after splitting two regular-season meetings. That game will be held Wednesday night inside the Wolstein Center with the winner playing either Shaker Heights or Canton McKinley for a shot to go down to Columbus for the state final four.
Nice work