By Don DiFrancesco
The OHSAA Division 1 regional semifinals featured playoff veterans Mentor (21-6) and St. Edward (22-5) in the second game of the doubleheader at Cleveland State on Wednesday night. Mentor came out of the gate in a hurry with good outside shooting and led 17-9 after one quarter.
When the second quarter didn’t bring immediate improvement for St. Ed’s, Eagles’ coach Eric Flannery inserted a couple of spark plugs named Will Henry and Demetrius Terry. And from that point the game changed completely.
Senior guard Tommy Schmock was finding Henry and Terry with pinpoint passing and the Eagles started to pick up the intensity on defense. By halftime, St. Edward had a 30-28 lead on the way to a solid 62-43 victory.
With the Eagles able to consistently score from inside, they rarely took any long-range shots after the first quarter. In fact, senior guard Jack Sullivan hit the only three 3-pointers tallied by his team on the night. Sullivan led the Eagles in scoring with 15.
St. Ed’s had a good night shooting, finishing 23-of-42, from the field (55 percent).
Mentor on the other hand really cooled off after the first quarter, finishing 17-of-44 (39 percent).
Schmock was very effective on both ends of the floor. He scored seven points, but also filled the stat sheet with 11 assists and three steals, serving as a source of constant irritation to the team from Mentor.
The bench bunch of Henry (9 points, 4 rebounds) and Terry (8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals) had a great game for the Eagles. Freshman starter Grant Huffman didn’t score in the first half, but came back to log 12 points after intermission.
Mentor was led by junior forward Tadas Tatarunas who scored 17 points to pace the Cardinals. He was also the top rebounder in the game with nine boards.
Senior guard Jack Korsok, Mentor’s leading scorer this season, had a hard time finding his shot vs. the tough St. Ed defense but did reach double figures in his final game with 10.
The Eagles advance to face Garfield Heights (22-4) in the Division I Region I Final at the CSU Wohlstein Center on Saturday, March 18. Tip-off is set for 7 pm and the winner earns a trip to the Final Four in Columbus.
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