Cardinals Step Up On Defense, Trounce South

Last week, Mentor High boys basketball Coach Bob Krizancic told his team that they needed to play better defense.

His players took the message to heart. They clamped down on South and rolled past the Rebels, 84-44 in the Division I district semifinal Thursday.

“You could see the energy we played with tonight on defense, and that was great to see,” Krizancic told Ohio Varsity. “It was a complete effort for us on both ends. We played a lot of guys and had a lot of guys step up and play really well. But the time to enjoy this doesn’t last long. We have a game to play on Saturday and we know it is going to be a challenge.”

South -- who had been playing well of late and toppled PAC foes Riverside and Madison to make the district semis -- were unable to slow the refocused Cardinals. The Rebels trailed by 12 at the end of one quarter and by 30 at the half.

Meanwhile, on the defensive end, the Cardinals held South to seven field goals and forced 12 turnovers in the game's first 16 minutes. For the entire game, South was limited to 12 field goals (24 percent shooting) and committed 20 turnovers.

Conner Krizancic scored 10 of his 18 points in the first half and Brandon Fritts scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds over the first two quarters. Fritts finished with a double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

“I knew I had a height advantage and I was able to post up,” Fritts said to Ohio Varsity. “We are excited because of how well we played on defense tonight. We worked very hard on that after the Lakeside game.”

Conner Krizancic said the difference between the Lakeside game and the South win wasn’t about tactics or changing the approach on defense.

“My dad (Coach Krizancic) preached about it all week - we just had to play harder, give a better effort,” Conner said.

The top-seeded Cardinals (20-5) advanced to Saturday’s district finals against No. 5 seed East Tech -- who the Cardinals beat in the district semfinal last year, 71-69.

Mentor is playing for a sixth consecutive district championship and a trip to the regional tournament at Cleveland State next week.

"Even though we are going for a sixth straight district title, we are going to prepare as hard as we have for any of the other ones," Conner said.

Mentor has not lost a tournament game at Euclid since a sectional final loss to Kenston in 2007.

Coach Krizancic stressed that -- just because the Cardinals have had consistent success -- doesn't mean the district tournament has become routine.

“It never gets old,” Coach Krizancic said. “I told the guys getting to the district finals is a tremendous feeling and this is the best time of the year. There isn’t a lot of time to relish this win. We have work to do.”