Villa Angela-St. Joseph Vikings Dominate Garrettsville Garfield, 87-47; Advance to Fifth-Straight Regional Final

Canton, OH–  The Villa Angela St. Joseph Vikings showed why they’re playing their fifth-straight regional final come Saturday.

The Vikings defeated Garrettsville Garfield, 87-47, on Wednesday, March 15 in the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse. The game started out fast-paced, but in the third quarter, everything went North, as the Vikings came in with high momentum and never looked back.

VASJ led, 41-30, at halftime and stepped on the gas pedal, outscoring the G-Men, 46-17 the rest of the way.

VASJ dominated the glass and made the most of second chance opportunities finishing with 45 rebounds on the night.

“Tonight we did a great job sharing the basketball.” Coach Babe Kwasniak said.

With that, team had 24 total assists.

Alonzo Gaffney led his Vikings with 17 points alongside William Butler who put up 14 including four shots from behind the arc.

VASJ (20-6) finished the first on a 13-2 run and was clicking all game long. VASJ created turnovers all night and getting to the basket in the second quarter. VASJ started the third quarter on a good note and was just too much for the G-Man. It seemed like every shot was going in for the Vikings.

“They just came out hitting their shots early on,” senior Daniel McGarry said. “They got on their run and we did the same thing after the first quarter, we just wanted to come here and win and that’s what we did.”

McGarry finished with 15 on the night.

VASJ advances to face West Salem Northwestern (22-5) on Saturday, March 18 in the regional final. The game tips off at 7 pm from the Canton Fieldhouse and the winner earns a trip to the Final Four in Columbus.