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Mentor High School Boys' Basketball Sets Tone with Dominant Win over Geneva

Mentor boys' team opens Northeast sectional playoff with 95-48 win over Geneva

Top teams often face the same question upon assessing their schedules for their first-round sectional games.

To bye or not to bye?

After the thumping they received from on Wednesday, Geneva probably wished Cardinals coach Bob Krizancic had decided to be merciful and move on to someone else.

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Well, no such luck was at hand as the Cardinals blasted the Eagles, 95-48, in a Northeast sectional matchup at Euclid High School Wednesday. Mentor will face Cleveland East Technical, an 82-77 winner over Chardon in the night’s first game.

The Cardinals brought 15 players to Euclid and all of them scored. Coach Krizancic played everyone to get his team completely prepared for what lies ahead and to give his younger boys a taste of playoff action.

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“We don’t like taking the bye. We like to get on the court quick and especially get the young kids in. We accomplished most of our goals,” Krizancic said. “It’s great getting some of the freshmen and sophomores on the floor. They got pretty good minutes.”

Mentor produced its usual standard of solid three-point shooting, posting 15 for the game.  Justin Fritts led Mentor with 20 points, while Collin Barth had 18. Cole Krizancic, the coach’s senior son, had 12.

But seeing his entire team get involved in the scoring was a source of pride for coach Krizancic.

“We have some great kids in our program that don’t get playing time, but I think could play at other schools. So this is a really good game for the complete team,” he said.

Mentor has now won 10 of their last 11 games. Mentor (17-4) clinched the Lake Erie League Lake Division title with an eight-game winning streak that ended when the Cardinals lost to St. Edward, 108-105, in their final home game of the season on Feb. 19.

With the team on a roll like this, it figured that someone like Geneva wouldn’t be much of a match. Geneva (3-18) had lost its last three games coming into Wednesday night. The Eagles' last victory came against Chardon on Feb. 11.

Nonetheless, the Eagles hung tough early in the game.

Despite a slow start, upstart Geneva began to find the range with backdoor cuts for easy layups at the basket in the first quarter. After falling behind to Mentor, 9-3, the Eagles put together a pair of wide-open layups from Jake McMahan and Cory Morrow to draw to 9-7.

But Fritts hit a pair of three-pointers and Krizancic stole the ball and laid it up for a score to stave off the threat as part of a 10-4 run to eventually lead, 19-11, to end the quarter.

The Cardinals broke the game open in the second quarter nailing six 3-pointers and forcing 10 turnovers. Collin Barth and Fritts each had two 3-pointers in the period. Danny Wallack, Barth, Conner Krizancic and Fritts opened the Cardinals’ second-quarter scoring with one 3-pointer apiece to extend their lead to 31-12 at 3:51.

Tom Strobel gave the Cardinals their only cause for concern in the half. Strobel fouled and then slammed Jerry Flautt to the court on a layup attempt. He was called for a two-shot technical foul. Combined with Bucky Schubert’s two made free throws, Flautt made 3-of-4 at the line as the Eagles closed the half with a 5-0 run, but still down, 47-21.

The Cardinals exploded for 33 points in the third quarter and held their biggest lead near its end at 80-30. But Ryan Huang gave the Eagles perhaps their greatest highlight of the game with a half-court heave that landed for a three-point score at the quarter’s buzzer.

Geneva 11 10 12 15 48

Mentor 19 28 33 15 95

Geneva: Cory Morrow 9, Ryan Huang 8, Jerry Flautt 8, Bucky Schubert 6, Ethan Howard 5, Matt Hallgren 3, Vern Thompson 3, Nelson Marquez 2, Jake McMahan 2, Travis Blake 2.

Mentor: Justin Fritts 20, Collin Barth 18, Cole Krizancic 12, Danny Wallack 9, Jeff Foreman 5, Derek Bryner 4, Matt Solden 4, Mitchell Trubinsky 4, Kyle Morris 3, Brad Kukula 3, Branden Piks 3, Tom Strobel 3, Conner Krizancic 3, Brandon Fritts 2, Cody Kern 2.

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