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McDonald heating up at the right time

Blue Devils cruise past rival as tourney nears

By Brian Yauger 4 min read

MINERAL RIDGE -- After taking the month of December off like the rest of Trumbull County, the McDonald girls basketball program is starting to find a rhythm.

With the tournament looming ahead, it's a good time to do just that. The Blue Devils continued to re-acclimate themselves to the speed of the varsity game, beating shorthanded rival Mineral Ridge, 81-24, Thursday evening.

"We're finally getting our legs back to where we were at the beginning of the season," Blue Devils coach Tony Matisi said. "I feel we're at that point now where we're in shape again. It was a battle getting everybody back after sitting so long, but I feel like we're back at that point now."

Molly Howard nearly reached the 30-point mark, tallying 27 points to lead McDonald. Sophia Constantino scored 15 points, and Lucy Wolford added 12. The Blue Devils saw scoring all the way down the bench as nine players registered points.

Matisi, who is in his first year coaching the program, has been impressed with how well the team has adapted to the constant changes the season has thrown at them.

"What a year," he said. "They're so mature, and anything thrown at them, they were ready for. Working their way back, to get their legs back, anything we told them we had to get ready for, get done, to get the season going again, they took and went with it."

As the team continues to recover from the pause and grow further, one thing the Blue Devils look to keep improving on is consistency.

"We're getting better consistently," Matisi said. "I want to be a consistent team. It's getting there. Our turnovers have been killing us the last five or six games, and that's got to do with our style, running and pushing, but still, we've got to make better decisions. I wish we had some more games. We've got a few games left. It's going to be February next week, and it's tournament time, but we'll be ready."

One thing that will have the Blue Devils prepared for the postseason despite the lack of games is their regular season schedule. With games already played against Warren G. Harding and West Branch, and with games against Garfield, Chartiers Valley (Pa.) and a rematch with Western Reserve lying ahead, McDonald will have faced plenty of challenges

"Once we saw that our (original) non-conference schedule was gonna be shot, we went out looking," Matisi said. "We called everybody in the state, we didn't care who they were. We really wanted the bigger teams. We've got a couple of nice ones coming up at the end of the year to get a good look at and see what we've got to get ready for."

Up next for McDonald is its rematch with Western Reserve. Earlier in the month, the two teams met in Berlin Center, but the visiting Blue Devils were able pull out a 49-42 victory.

With eight players on the roster, Mineral Ridge (0-11, 0-8) had already been dealt a rough hand before the shutdown even took place. While yet to pick up a win, the Rams have continued to grow as the season progresses.

Mineral Ridge faced one of its toughest defensive challenges of the season in McDOnald and held tough for spurts of the game, but the Rams weren't able to match the offensive firepower of the Blue Devils.

"I'm happy that we got some looks, we just didn't make any shots," Mineral Ridge coach Matt Cluse said. "We just missed a lot of our open shots, and they don't miss a lot of their open shots. Overall, if you go into a gunfight with a knife, you're in trouble.

"But I think my girls did a pretty good job. They know they're outmatched, but they probably played with more heart tonight than they've played with all year."

The Rams face Springfield on Monday.

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