Sports

Krizancic Blasts Mentor's Defense After 20-Point Win

The coach was less than thrilled with his team despite a record-setting night

Mentor's sectional title and record-setting 118 points scored Friday night did not impress coach Bob Krizancic too much.

The team defeated Lakeside 118-98, but the manner in which the Cardinals won seemed to irk the coach. The team entered the game preaching the importance of defense, and nearly giving up 100 points was not what Krizancic had in mind.

"Our defense stunk. That starts with me," he told Ohio Varsity. I have to do a better job of getting these guys ready to play defense. It was a very poor defensive effort. We weren’t tough. We weren’t aggressive.

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"We set a record for points scored, but it is meaningless. It should have an asterisk by it because of how bad we were defensively."

Willoughby South is next up for the Cardinals. The teams will face off on Thursday in the district semifinal at Euclid. Mentor beat South, 91-67, in December.

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Senior Jeff Foreman scored 18 points in the first half, but left with an injury. Kent Berger and Michael Gallagher each added 17, to go with 15 from Brandon Fritts and 12 from both Brody Nelson and Caleb Potter.

"The pace was one we liked, and Lakeside has some athletes and does some good things," Krizancic. "We got a lot of 2s tonight and didn’t have to rely on the 3s as much, which was good to see.

"But, we stress defense wins championships and what we did tonight isn’t going to get it done, not even close.”


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