The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Mentor’s Sabin plays big on senior night
As Senior Nights go, the Greater Cleveland Conference season finale on Feb. 22 will be an unforgettable one for Matt Sabin and his Mentor teammates, who dispatched visiting Elyria, 97-58.
Sabin, a senior, scored a game-high 20 points off the bench, which included sinking 6 of 8 shots from 3-point range. Recognizing his hot hand, his teammates kept looking for him as the game progressed. Eight different Cardinals connected at least once from outside the arc, including all five starters, as Mentor knocked down 18 triples in 33 attempts.
The Cardinals hit 16 of those 3s in the first half, including a scorching 14 straight at one point. The Cardinals raced ahead, 29-10, after one quarter, scoring the last 18 points of the frame.
Behind Sabin’s 5 of 6 shooting from 3-point range in the second quarter, along with a pair of treys each by Luke Floriea and Caleb Piks, Mentor scored 39 points in the frame and pushed its lead to an insurmountable 68-28 at halftime.
Mentor improved to 18-2 on the season, and finished GCC play as outright league champions at 12-2.
“My teammates found me where I was, and we played our hearts out in the second quarter,” Sabin said.
“We scored 39 points, and we all found each other and played together as a team. Nobody was missing in the first half. I think somebody said we had like 13 3s in a row or something.”
Chad Rogers scored 19 points, including a second-quarter dunk, for the Cardinals. Floriea finished with 14, Piks and Mason Trubisky added 10, and Alex Edwards chipped in nine.
“Great game out of Matt Sabin,” Mentor coach Bob
Krizancic said. “He’s that good of a shooter. Defensively, he looked really good tonight. I think we’re eight deep right now, which is really good.
“Ideally, we wanted our starters to go 18-22 minutes, since we have three games this week, including the tough one at St. Joe’s the other night. That’s the best thing, that our starters didn’t have to expend a lot of energy.”
Mentor’s starting five was on the bench for good with 3:30 left in the third quarter. In all, 16 players in all saw the floor for the Cardinals, and 11 players
scored.
“I don’t know of any team that has made 14 3s in a row,” Krizancic said. “That’s off the charts.”
Three players finished in double figures for Elyria: MarSaun Robinson (12 points), Caleb Rogers (10), and Jahkai Owens (10).
The Pioneers, who earned the No. 5 seed in the Division I Elyria Catholic District, fell to 8-14, 2-12 in the GCC.
Mentor, the No. 1 seed in the Division I Euclid District, has two big games remaining to close out the regular season. The Cardinals will host neighborhood
rival Lake Catholic on Feb. 23 in front of what is expected to be a very large crowd, and then travels to Massillon Jackson on Feb. 26 to take on the the Polar Bears, who are the No. 1 seed in the D-I Canton District. If Mentor can win at least one of those games, it will give Krizancic the most wins he’s had in a regular season.
“It would definitely be a record for Mentor,” Krizancic said. “In the (former) 20-game schedule (our best was) 18-2. It would be nice for these guys, because no one expected them to do it.”
The Cardinals, winners
of five of their last six, including beating stateranked VASJ on Feb. 18, have plenty of momentum and hope their hot shooting carries over into the eagerly anticipated showdown with their neighbors from Route 306 and Bellflower.
“I feel really good (going into) tomorrow,” Krizancic said. “It’s gonna be a war, and it’s gonna be a fun game going into the tournament.”
“We’re really looking forward to (tomorrow),” Sabin said. “We haven’t played them in all my four years here, so this is gonna be a big game.”