’Cats tame ’Toppers

Visiting Chardon came into Mayfield’s gym Feb. 9 riding the wave of huge league wins over Riverside and Kenston.

The Wildcats had no interest in being Western Reserve Conference victim No. 3.

After a seesaw first half, Mayfield took control with a 25-point third quarter and kept the Hilltoppers at arms’ length throughout the fourth quarter to win, 7467.

The Wildcats improved to 8-11 overall and 4-2 in the WRC.

They will close out the league portion of their schedule at Madison on Feb. 12.

Mayfield junior Hayden Nahra had a double-double of 27 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Wildcats. Senior Donovan Coffey added 18 points, and junior Alex Page chipped in 14.

“We ran our fast-break pretty well, and Coach is always emphasizing getting out on the break,” Nahra said. “We saw that they weren’t getting back on defense very well, so pushed our fast-break and got easy baskets off of it.”

Nahra tallied 17 points in the first half, including a triple that gave the Wildcats a 36-35 halftime lead.

Mayfield’s success in transition allowed it to

continue to stretch its lead throughout the third stanza. Sophomore Kyle Irwin’s 3 and subsequent pair of free throws gave the Wildcats a double-digit lead at 58-48.

Joshua Bruce scored for Chardon to make it 58-50, but Page split a pair of foul shots, then put back a teammate’s miss just before the buzzer to give Mayfield its biggest lead, 61-50.

“That was very cool,” Page said of beating the buzzer. “I started out with my left hand, but I couldn’t really hold it. I just threw it up and it went off the backboard and went in, so it was all good.”

Chardon (7-6) battled back in the fourth quarter behind senior Brady Toth, who scored 10 of his gamehigh 30 points in the frame.

The Hilltoppers drew within 71-66 late. Then after one free throw for each

team, Chardon couldn’t take advantage of a turnover, missing multiple shot attempts. Nahra grabbed a rebound and was fouled and sank both shots for the final margin.

“During the season, we’ve been focusing on trying to come out in the third quarter with a lot more energy,” Mayfield coach Will Brand said. “Making sure we don’t have any letdowns.

“We’ve been playing pretty good basketball of late, and it’s about being consistent going all the way into this tournament play.”

Chardon suffered a setback when junior standout Nathanael Sulka was saddled with three fouls in the first few minutes of the game and had to sit out the rest of the first half.

Toth shouldered the scoring load, scoring 20 points before halftime, including three 3s.