Warren JFK ousted by Dalton
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STRUTHERS -- With just under five minutes remaining in the Division IV, Northest 2 district final between Dalton and Warren JFK, the lights went out at Struthers Fieldhouse as the whole city reportedly suffered a power outage.
About 10 minutes later, the lights flickered back on, but while the Bulldogs rebounded from the break, the Eagles never found a way to get themselves back in the game.
A 3-pointer by Dalton's Brady Hignight sparked a game-deciding Bulldogs run which handed the Eagles their second-straight district final loss, 71-58.
"Kudos to them, they made adjustments, they destroyed us on the offensive glass, and in the fourth quarter they just started making shots," Warren JFK's Mark Komlanc said.
Hignight finished the game with 20 points while Dalton's star forward Braylon Wenger scored a game-high 28 points, including a trey and an emphatic dunk in the final run to put the exclamation point on the contest.
The Eagles were led by 17 points from sophomore guard Nick Ryan while Jaden Rishel pitched in 14. Michael Condoleon, who entered the game averaging 17.8 points, dealt with foul trouble for part of the night and finished with nine while Nico Ciminero scored eight.
The Bulldogs started the night off strong and established their presence in the paint early as they took advantage of second-chance opportunities.
Senior Jack Steiner tallied nine of his 17 points in the frame and helped Dalton jump out to a 15-5 lead. But the Eagles slowly worked their way back into the game.
A Devonte Taylor layup at the end of the first quarter cut the lead to four, then a Ciminero three and a pair of Ryan free throws gave the Eagles their first lead at the 6:48 mark of the second quarter.
"Probably four or five minutes through that first quarter our guys started to ramp it up and bought into making the extra rotation and sped them up a little bit, and they got used to it," Komlanc said. "We know good teams are going to get used to it, we just could never get back into that defensive mentality."
The Eagles attempted to build that lead out and had it up eight points after a Ryan and-1 toward the end of the frame. But, the Bulldogs never went away and stayed close as they only trailed by four points heading into halftime.
At the 5:10 mark of the third quarter, Hignight splashed his first of three 3-pointers to tie the game at 42. Ciminero answered with one of his own and the two teams went on to exchange buckets throughout the rest of the quarter.
The ultimate change in the game came in the fourth as the Bulldogs scored two quick buckets and a free throw to take a 58-54 lead. A Rishel bucket cut the Bulldogs lead to two and forced a timeout with 4:39 left in the game.
That was when the lights went out and for the Eagles, they simply never came back on.
Hignight drilled his three to start the final barrage, then Wenger put the game out of reach with his only three of the night.
Coming into the contest, Wenger had put together a special season for the Bulldogs and had, at points through the year, carried his team. He scored 40 points against Cardinal in their sectional final win. He only tallied eight points against Lowellville in the district semifinal, but all of them came from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Although Wenger still put together a special performance, Komlanc thought the difference was his teammates stepping up to the occasion.
"If one guy was going to beat us tonight we were in trouble to begin with," Komlanc said. "But we actually talked about, he's going to get his, so it's just about the other players and their other players outplayed us. I mean (Hignight) had 20 points tonight. He didn't make many shots last game but he stepped up in the moment tonight. We knew Steiner was good too, but their other four guys outplayed our first five."
For the second straight year, the Eagles held a lead in the district final, which is a cause for concern from Komlanc, who said it will be something to address in the offseason.
"This is only good if we can learn from it and that is kind of what we talked about," Komlanc said. "This looked very similar to last year and as great as it is to have everyone back and to get to this point, we had the lead in the district title game the last two years and we lost. We gotta do some reflecting to figure that out."