The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Pioneers drop GCC contest to Mentor THE SCORE
The Mentor Cardinals returned to the court for the first time, following an 11day layoff. Luke Chicone, the team’s standout senior point guard, didn’t look one bit rusty though, as he scored 19 points and senior Steven Key scored 11 points to lead Mentor to a 72-59 win over Elyria.
Mentor, who hadn’t played since Jan. 9 due to a case of COVID-19 inside the program, trailed early on, but was in control for much of the night.
Elyria, which dropped to 3-6 with the loss and 1-4 in the Greater Cleveland Conference, had cut an 11-point Mentor lead to six on backto-back buckets by senior guard MarSaun Robinson.
The game turned in Mentor’s favor late in the second quarter. But thanks in part to two technical fouls on Elyria in the half’s final two minutes, Mentor went on a 10-3 run to take a 13-point lead into the half.
Mentor shot just 9-of-33 in the win, but it has not shot well from distance all season, Cardinals coach Bob Krazancic said after his team knocked off Elyria.
“We’re 4-0. We beat Medina by 11, but we haven’t shot well the entire year,” said Krziancic.
In Mentor’s other three wins, the Cardinals have shot 5-of-25, 8-of-29 and 10-of 31 from 3-point land, which usually leads a team to the losing column.
“I guess that’s the good thing. If we can start to shoot the basketball,” than Mentor can probably count
on going on a long tournament run, said Krizancic.
The play of Chicone helped overcome the cold shooting. He buried a 3-pointer to start the night and scored 10 points in the first quarter to help Mentor get off to a good start.
Elyria got a huge night from Robinson, who went toe-to-toe scoring with Chicone for much of the contest. Robinson finished the
night with 20 points, many of which coming off nifty pull-up jump shots.
“He’s been getting those looks and tonight he was able to get them to go down.” Elyria coach Brett Larrick said of the effort by Robinson.
Omar Palos added 10 for Elyria.
The Pioneers got a nice performance out of Greg Mogus, who provided an inside presence with four blocks and nine points.
“I told our guys I’m really proud of how hard they fought and competed. I think we’ve been missing that” Larrick said. “One heck of an effort all around. Our guards, I don’t think we took them out all game against their pressure and that’s tough,” Larrick added.
That pressure resulted in 20 Elyria turnovers, which led to run outs for Mentor and some easy baskets.
Mentor also controlled the boards, outrebounding Elyria 37-24.
Mentor had just one practice after being off since Jan. 9, Krizancic said.
Help for Chicone came in the form of senior forward Jonah Waag. What Waag lacks in flash to his game — you won’t see too much slick handle out of him — he more than makes up for in grit.
In the first two quarter he came up with key rebound after rebound, a key steal here and added 5 points. Mentor received quality minutes from Andrew Smith,a. 6-5 senior post player. He scored eight points in the first half.
His 3-point play on an offensive rebound late in the second quarter gave Mentor a 35-24 and was part of that late run Mentor used at the end of the first half to take control of the game.
The future for the rest of the season looks for bright for Mentor, even if its 3-point shooting stats look gloomy, Krizanic said.
“The potential and pieces are definitely there. We play pretty hard, not as hard as we need to play. I though we’d need seven to 10 games under our belt to know what we really have and then go from there,” Krizancic said.