Cardinals roll behind Chicone’s career-high

The fact that Mentor got off to a slow start against visiting Strongsville on Feb. 10, trailing 19-16 after the first quarter, might have been a little surprising to some observers. But it turned out to be just the calm before the storm.

If the second quarter was a tidal wave, then the third quarter was a virtual tsunami as the Cardinals simply overwhelmed the Mustangs with 67 points in the middle quarters on their way to a 111-64 victory.

A swarming Mentor fullcourt pressure defense and masterful offensive performance by senior Luke Chicone combined to make life miserable for the visitors.

Chicone, one night after scoring 30 points in a win over Euclid, set a new career-high with 40 points, 26 in the third quarter alone.

The Youngstown Statebound guard, who eclipsed his previous high of 39 points in the D1 Regional Semifinal win over Medina last season, scored every which way he could. He sank 10 of 11 from the free throw line, drilled a pair of 3s, scored on drives to the basket, on layups in transition, and off turnovers in the backcourt.

While Chicone enjoyed setting a new career high in scoring, he knows that big offensive nights such as what he and his teammates had against Strongsville get their start on the defensive end of the floor.

After the slow start in the first quarter, Mentor turned the volume of its pressure defense up almost as high as it could go. Strongsville, which turned the ball over nearly 20 times in the middle frames, often began possessions with all five Mentor defenders on the Mustangs’ side of the floor, with two Cardinals running at the player with the ball, never giving him a chance to pass the ball downcourt.

“That’s just the Mentor program,” Chicone said. “We want to get in people’s faces and press them on our 92-foot floor, and tire them out. I think our ‘twenty-five’ (points per quarter goal) is finally starting to click.

“We feel like we’re more conditioned and mentally ready than anybody, so in the first quarter we feel like we tired them out a little bit, then made our run in the second and third quarters.”

After connecting on 6 of 18 shots in the first quarter, Mentor opened the second with a 15-2 run, and went on to score 29 in the frame to take a 4533 lead into halftime.

As Mentor’s pressure continued to take its toll on the third quarter on the Mustangs, and as Strongsville coach Kevin Sapara implored his team to be stronger with the basketball, Chicone poured in 26 of his team’s 38 points in the stanza to extend the Cardinals’ lead to an insurmountable 83-49 after three.

“After the first quarter, I thought the pressure and intensity was as good as it’s been,” Mentor coach Bob Krizancic said. “We shoot for 25-plus points a quarter. We’ve been pretty inconsistent, (but tonight) we put two back to back and then even in the fourth quarter.”

Mentor improved to 14-0 on the season, and 8-0 in the Greater Cleveland Conference. The Cardinals will travel to neighboring Riverside on Feb.12.

Steven Key scored 17 points for the Cardinals, and Jonah Waag added 14 and 8 rebounds.

Mentor’s bench bunch got in on the fun, scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter as the starters took a seat on the bench.

“We have a great program,” Krizancic said. “Everybody we put in plays hard, and to do the things we believe in-shooting the three, running the floor, and playing hard defensively. It was great to see the fourth quarter.”

While it wasn’t an alltime high for Mentor, which has had games of 116 and 118 points in the past, the 40 points was a high for Chicone, who again displayed that he is one of the best guards in Ohio.

“That was the first time he’s scored 40,” Krizancic said in regards to Chicone. “He is so capable. He scored 39 in the regional final (last season). He’s just a very special player. I told him he’s turned into a great leader, and he’s just so solid defensively.

“Our team goes by how hard we play on defense. That was one of the best things (tonight), that so many offensive opportunities were created by our defense.”