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TWINSBURG, Ohio– The game plan for Nordonia head coach Dominique Sanders Wednesday night was to man up and force the Cardinals into pressure.
That was highly executed as No. 3 Nordonia (19-5) stunned No. 5 Mentor (19-6) 64-58, advancing to their first district championship game since 2013.
“We talked about manning up and understanding that you have to guard the ball if you want to advance,” Sanders said about the mindset heading into Wednesday night’s district semifinal game. “Our guys did a pretty good job of taking on that challenge for four quarters. We were able to hold them and sustain them for most of the game to have success defensively.”
The two guys who stepped up most for the Knights were Landon Naylor and Isaac Cherry, they finished with 19 and 14 points respectively to pace their team during the win.
“We had no all-district players, everybody had them winning,” Naylor said. “We’re a team that fights hard and we’re not going to change who we play.”
All game long, Naylor constantly found himself near the rim finishing for layups, but late in the fourth quarter, with his team hardly holding onto a lead, he was able to sink some clutch free throws, giving his team a cushion when they needed it the most.
The Cardinals trailed by as many as eight points with four minutes left in the fourth quarter, but turnovers and knocked down 3-pointers kept their chances alive with under two minutes left.
Naylor wasn’t able to knock down a one-and-one free throw with under two minutes left, and the Cardinals capitalized on the ensuing possession with a Kobe Frasure-Azzano corner 3-pointer to put the Cardinals within two–60-58 with 27 seconds remaining.
That’s the last point the Cardinals would score, as the Knights iced the game away at the free throw line and forced the Cardinals to take desperation 3-pointers to continue trying to inch away at the Nordonia lead.
“Our guys have been there, (he’s) just a great, great player taking advantage of the moment,” Sanders said about Naylor’s leadership late in the game. “He’s just a calm, mellow guy who understands the task and situation at hand, he was a leader tonight.”
Of course, a big spark for the Knights all game long was the way their bench was able to get the Cardinals off their game early on, forcing them to come from behind since the opening basket of the game.
“Our bench production was amazing tonight,” Sanders said about players like Joey Palinkas and Trevor Turnbull coming off the bench throughout the second half and forcing a myriad of turnovers. “I thought Isaac Cherry did an amazing job defending (Iaoppolo)and finishing at the rim.”
For the Knights, Liam Gopalakrishna finished the game with 10 points along with six from Mitchell Wiechecki to lead the team in scoring following Naylor and Cherry’s impact.
Ian Ioppolo had eight of his team’s 13 points in the first quarter, but the way the Cardinals were able to close out the opening quarter translated as the game went on. The Knights used a balance of a relaxed offense along with a tough defense to force the Cardinals to rely on its outside shot early on.
With that, Ioppolo helped close out the final four minutes of the first quarter on a 10-4 run, to tie the game at 13 apiece heading into the second quarter.
Liam Gopalakrishna provided a spark off the bench throughout the second quarter, his 3-pointer midway through the quarter helped put his team up 24-19, with the Cardinals visibly frustrated all night with the stingy Knight defense.
“We knew Mentor was a high-scoring team so we knew the guys we had to pick up and the guys we had to guard,” Cherry said about the Cardinals heading into Wednesday night’s matchup. “The whole week we’ve been locked down defending each other and focusing on defending these guys.”
The Cardinals would take their first lead of the game—36-34 after Ryan Call knocked down a 3-pointer with two minutes left in the third quarter. However, both teams were forced to play through foul troubles throughout the second half as physicality took over parts of the game when the Cardinals started to go on a few scoring runs.
Senior guard Joey Palinkas had the duties of guarding Iappolo, forcing him to get outside his comfort zone on a night his team needed him to find a rhythm early and often.
For the Cardinals, Ian Iappolo ended the night with 22 points along with 12 points from Matthew Biddell and 10 points from Frasure-Azzano. Five players scored for the Cardinals during the loss, ending their season with an overall record of 19-6.
“We shot 29 percent in the paint and we didn’t get enough hustle points,” Mentor head coach Bob Krizancic said. “The maturity and toughness I think was the difference.”
The Knights now advance to the district championship Saturday afternoon against the winner of No. 4 Archbishop Hoban (20-3) vs. No. 7 Canton GlenOak (18-6) on Thursday night.
