Mentor, OH- On Friday night the Uniontown Lake Blue Streaks to Mentor to face the Cardinals. The game was a great one for Mentor's coach Bob Krizancic who his banner on the wall for his 700th career coaching win. Mentor took this one downing Lake 79-64.
Mentor was able to keep control for most of the game leading by as much as 20 in the third quarter.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was junior captain Matthew Biddell. He had 29 points and was able to get to the line often attempting 10 free throws. He also had some solid help from Ian Ioppolo as he dropped in 26 points and was a monster on the offensive and defensive boards.
For the Uniontown, junior Chace Casenhiser put in 34 points while hitting five 3-pointers. Sadly for him and his team, his supporting cast was not able to pick up the slack on opening night. Caleb Collins was able to chip in 13 points as he and Casenhiser supplied 47 of Lake's 64 points on the night.
A part of Mentor's big win today was their smothering defense, using a full-court press for most of the game. I had a chance to talk with Matthew Biddell following the game.
"I mean, we always press, trying to get the game fast. We came out and the pace was not what we wanted it to be, the game was kind of slow." Biddell said. "As a team, we picked it up, and the tempo got going faster, and that's how we want to play."
After a slow start to the game in which neither team scored in the first four minutes, both teams were able to pick it up offensively. Mentor was the better team on this night.
All in all, this was a great game to watch, and it'll be exciting to see what both teams have in store for the rest of their season.