Correspondent photo / Lowell Spencer. Boardman’s Mackenzie Riccitelli (left) drives against Canfield’s Carly Fleming (right) during their double-overtime thriller on Saturday.

BOARDMAN — The Boardman Spartans girls basketball team had to clear one more hurdle before they could play in a rematch contest with Austintown Fitch for the All-American Conference title.

The Canfield Cardinals team wanted nothing more than to knock off their archrival and position themselves better for tournament seeding.

The Spartans cleared that hurdle, as they turned back the Cardinals in a thrilling 63-60 double overtime game to move half a game behind the Falcons in the league race. The two teams will face each other next Saturday on Boardman’s home court.

“The first thing that this game means is that we are just a half-game behind Fitch for the league title. The second thing is that we overcame adversity today. We were down three at the end of the first overtime and Mackenzie (Riccitelli) hit that three. When that went in, momentum switched to our side,” Spartans coach Jeff Hammerton said. “The most important thing is that you saw two teams that are really, really good and fought to the very end. We just made one more play than them. That’s what it came down to.”

The victory improves the Spartans to 11-4 on the season and 4-1 in the league. It also meant Boardman swept the series with the Cardinals this year after previously losing 15 in a row to Canfield.

“This is what we play basketball for. These types of games,” Spartans junior forward Sarah Bero stated. “This is why we play, for these exciting games.”

“We always want to win our conference games. We dropped the one to Fitch in our last game, but getting a win like this really shows that we are still in this,” Riccitelli added.

For Canfield, the loss drops them to 9-6 overall on the year and 2-3 in the league, plus the loss snapped its three-game winning streak.

“We know we are out of the league now. So, everything we are doing is to prepare to be peaking at the end of the year and get ready for (the) tournament,” Cardinals head coach Matt Reel said.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, starting sophomore guard Jenna Triveri turned an ankle just a little over a minute into the game. She was carried off the court and did not return.

“I’m biased, but I think she is one of the better players in the area, period,” Reel said. “And any time you lose someone like that, it took us a while to adjust. Losing her is a big portion of what we do. But after the shock wore off, we fought back. We just hope she is going to be okay.”

Along the way for the Spartans, Riccitelli recorded her 1,000th career point in the win. She hit the milestone on a layup at the 4:32 mark of the third quarter, providing the Spartans a commanding 13-point advantage. She added two free throws 20 seconds later to provide them with a game-high 15-point lead.

“It was a major relief. I tried not to think about it during the game. I knew it was going to come. As long as I was getting my teammates involved and scoring and we were winning, I knew that I would end up scoring,” Riccitelli said. “I just think about little me wanting to go and score 1,000 points, thinking it was something huge and maybe unreachable. But now that I did it, I’m like yeah, I did it. I’m proud of myself.”

“There was a layer to the game that you don’t normally have,” Hammerton added. “Everyone was waiting for her to get that point. So, you are trying to get that 1,000th point, but the other girls did rally around (her). There are only thirteen girls in Boardman High School basketball history to do it. It means you need to be playing since your freshman year and score at least 250 points a season.”

Rebounding proved to be the difference in the game, as the Spartans utilized great team rebounding to provide them with multiple second-chance opportunities. Bero would yank down 12 boards in the game, helping her to score off several of those.

“That is where we lost the basketball game,” Reel said. “I think we gave up eight rebound baskets. That is just unacceptable. Several times we had our hands on them, and they ripped them away. In a game like this, it came down to one possession.”

“I thought our team’s rebounding was the difference. It wasn’t just Sarah Bero. For us to be a good rebounding team, it has to come from all five players,” Hammerton said.

“That’s one of our main focuses. Most of the teams we face are bigger than us, so as long as we are boxing out and getting those rebounds, and especially offensive rebounds, and go up again, it deflates the other team,” Riccitelli added.

Once the Spartans had reached that 15-point margin, Canfield responded with a desperate comeback attempt. They fought back with a 12-4 run to close the third quarter, cutting the deficit down to just a seven-point game at 37-30 by the close of the stanza.

Following a three by Cami Hritz and two free throws by Grace McQuiston, the Cardinals had clawed their way back to trail by one, 37-36, by the 6:39 mark of the fourth quarter. A 7-2 run by the Spartans put them back out ahead by six before Hritz and Camie Dill hit back-to-back threes to knot the game at 44-44 at the close of regulation.

“We weren’t discouraged,” Bero said of Dill hitting the three to send the game into a second overtime. “We were excited for another quarter. Let’s do this. We never get to do this. Four more minutes against your rival. It was fun.”

When Dill connected on a jumper at the 1:44 mark of the first extra session, Canfield enjoyed just its second lead of the contest at 50-49. By the time Carly Fleming scored on a layup with only 18 seconds remaining, it looked like the game was the Cardinals’ to win with a 54-51 lead. But Riccitelli threw up a deep three-ball from the right wing that hit home to tie the contest at 54 and send it into a second overtime.

The Spartans used the momentum of Riccitelli’s three to finally dispose of the Cardinals in the second overtime, as Sam Duble, Bero and Riccitelli connected on baskets to help the Spartans outscore the Cardinals 9-6 in the frame. Riccitelli also knocked down 13 of 17 free throws including a perfect 6 for 6 in the two overtime sessions.

“We have been tested quite a bit this year by some really good opponents and today was another one of those tests,” Reel said. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted in the first half, but man, the effort in the second half and the overtimes. I’m so proud of our girls’ effort. That was a classic Canfield-Boardman basketball game and a great display of the quality of girls’ basketball that we have in this area.”

The Cardinals will return to the court on Wednesday night when they host the All-American League leading Fitch Falcons. The Spartans will also play again on Wednesday when they host the Cardinal Mooney Cardinals in non-conference action.