Staff photo / Neel Madhavan McDonald’s Brenden Emrick (0) goes up for a layup while being defended by Western Reserve’s Jackson Young on Friday night in McDonald.

MCDONALD — After the McDonald football team won its first 13 games during its historic season in the fall, the boys basketball team has picked up right where it left off.

McDonald continued its unbeaten start to the season on Friday, extending its winning streak to 14 by overcoming a slow first quarter to hand Western Reserve a 60-44 defeat.

“It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride,” McDonald head coach James Franceschelli said. “We didn’t get (the football) guys till late. We practiced for four or five days, and then we were right into playing games. But these guys know what it takes to win, and they’ve been in my system for four years. They know what’s expected of them every day at practice and then at the game.

“We could still get better, though, we really can, and they know that our goals are still ahead of us. We got a long way to go here, but I’m proud of these guys. I’m thankful to be 14-0. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Western Reserve (9-4, 8-2 MVAC-Scarlet) came after McDonald (14-0, 9-0 MVAC-Scarlet) early, not letting it record its first basket until almost midway through the first quarter. Reserve jumped out to a 10-2 advantage and led 13-4 by the end of the opening period.

However, Reserve dropped into a 2-3 zone to open the second quarter and McDonald took advantage, as its shooters began to heat up, especially Joey Cappuzello.

McDonald knocked down six 3-pointers during the quarter, led by four from Cappuzello, who scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the period.

“I switched up defenses there going into the second quarter, trying to mix it up,” Reserve head coach Joe Serensky said. “That was the plan coming in. That’s probably my mistake, going to that. Left a couple shooters open and that let (Cappuzello) get going, which we didn’t want to do. But when you’re playing a team like that, you gotta try to mix things up and try to keep them off balance. But it didn’t work tonight.”

After trailing by nine at the end of the first, McDonald built a 26-22 lead at halftime.

In the second half, Reserve adjusted its approach defensively after Cappuzello’s explosive second quarter. He scored just three points the rest of the night, as his teammates picked up the slack.

“Just put a couple of our dogs on him, as far as face guarding him, not letting him get open,” Serensky said. “But they got shooters. So you take one away, then the next one steps up and you see what happens.”

With Reserve keying on Cappuzello, Brenden Emrick took over for McDonald offensively in the second half. All 17 of his points came in the second half, as McDonald began to build on its lead and pull away.

Casey Miller also had 10 points, as McDonald finished with 11 made 3-pointers, shooting 40.7% from beyond the arc.

“We just needed to play harder, we really did. That’s credit to (Reserve),” Franceschelli said. “In the first quarter, they did a good job of slowing us down and making some shots. But our guys never panicked. They’ve been here and done that. Most of these guys have been playing varsity basketball for four years, so they just stayed the course. And once you start hitting some shots, everything gets a little bit better.”

Aiden Romine and Josh Klasic provided the bulk of the offense for Western Reserve in the first half, combining for 18 of its 22 points. But Klasic went down with an injury during the third quarter and was hobbled for the rest of the game.

Connor Cochran then picked up the scoring slack for Reserve in the second half, scoring 17 of his 20 points to lead the team.

“He’s a scorer. He wants the ball in his hands every possession,” Serensky said of Cochran. “I gotta reel him back sometimes and tell him we gotta get some other guys involved. But he’s a great kid. He worked his butt off all summer. We looked at him to score for us, especially with Klasic going out with that sprained ankle. I think he tried to do a little bit more than usual.”

Next up, McDonald heads to face Waterloo on Tuesday at 7 p.m., while Western Reserve returns home to host Lowellville on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“We just gotta go over the film, watch our mistakes,” Serensky said. “We’re going to have to beat teams that are just like these guys. Maybe we see these guys again later down the road (in the playoffs). So we just gotta get back to the drawing board and figure it out.”