STRUTHERS — Come Saturday, it will have been 364 days since the Struthers Wildcats lost the Division II district championship in overtime to the Chaney Cowboys.

It was the Wildcats’ last loss.

Struthers improved to 24-0 on Thursday, as it got past Canton South 78-58 in a district semifinal behind Trey Metzka’s 19 points. Brandon Washington added 15 and Ronnie Leonard chipped in with 11.

“I said it’s not unfinished business because this team is not last year’s team,” Struthers coach Michael Wernicki said. “Last year’s team made their mark, and we gave a great effort and Chaney beat us that night. This is a totally different group with a different mindset than last year’s group. This is their story this year.

“… It is going to be an unbelievably difficult game. When you put something on the line like that everything changes, mentality changes, and like tonight, adversity can strike at any moment. There’s a lot of things that are out of your control that you have to be able to handle.”

At least after the first quarter, it didn’t seem like Struthers would face any adversity as the Wildcats shot 12-of-16 from the floor and ran out to a 29-9 lead.

That play continued in the second quarter as they shot 8-of-10 and built a 49-24 lead at the half.

“That’s something we preach in practice, being engaged and being ready from the jump,” Metzka said. “When we’re doing that and we’re in it mentally, it leads a lot of times to us making shots like that.

“We were able to get a few open ones early and knock them down. That just kind of leads into the defensive side. We were able to set up our press. That’s huge for us again. The quick start was what we wanted to try and do.”

All in all, Struthers limited Canton South to 8-for-17 shooting in the first half, holding standout Shamar Blackmon to just two points.

Wernicki felt fortunate to get out to that kind of start as Canton South (16-8) had come in winning nine of its last 10 games.

“When you make shots early, I don’t care who you are. it gets you going,” he said. “It energizes your defense. I thought that’s what it did for us, making some shots early. It doesn’t always happen like that, but it really helped us get out of the gate on both ends of the floor. I was happy for that because (Canton South) plays tight to the vest a lot.

“They’re very successful doing it. This is an unbelievable team. They put so much pressure on you. You have to take advantage playing at home, getting a lead, and letting that spark your defense. I thought we did that tonight.”

Canton South started to find its own spark as it limited Struthers to just nine field-goal attempts in the third quarter and found some success breaking down Struthers’ 2-3 zone as Blackmon started to get hot behind the arc.

“We didn’t come out in the second half as well as I would have liked,” Metzka said. “Little lapses there mentally. They hit some shots as well.”

Still, Struthers was up 60-40 heading to the fourth quarter.

“I give them the credit,” Wernicki said. “We didn’t come out in the third quarter with the same intensity that we did to start the game. They took advantage of it. At no point did we feel like they’re just going to stop playing.

“I knew, eventually, that they were going to find their way a little bit, because they do so many different things defensively that they’re good at that, that takes you out of your normal rhythm. They did that to us and it bothered us a little bit.”

After a Washington bucket pushed it back out to a 22-point lead, Blackmon started to catch fire as his 20 points in the second half got Canton South as close as 67-53 with four minutes left in the game.

Struthers dug in though holding Canton South to just two field goals the rest of the way.

“I’ve got seniors, and they figured it out, and we got some baskets when we needed to, just enough, to keep them at bay,” Wernicki said. “Then it eventually got to the point where you’re under three minutes and it’s really difficult.

“At this time of the year, everybody’s good. You’re just not going to pull away from people. You’ve got guys now, seniors, that are fighting for their season not to end. You’re just not going to get some of the same results that you get in the regular season. I didn’t expect anything less.”

Struthers will look to now get one step further than they did last year as they play the Chardon Hilltoppers on Saturday at the Fieldhouse.

Chardon defeated Canfield, 82-71.

“Making it back to the district; that’s just something we’ve been planning on since the beginning,” Metzka said. “Now the time is here, we need to maintain focus. Another reason why we lost that game last year was because we lost our poise. The moment got a little too big. We can’t have lapses in execution.”