Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Canfield’s Drew Shapiro puts up a layup against Warrensville Heights. Shapiro scored 10 points.

CANTON — Canfield and Warrensville Heights stayed in near lockstep with one another during Thursday’s Division II regional semifinal game, but the Cardinals prevailed with a strong final 10 minutes to win 68-46 and secure a rematch with Ursuline on Saturday.

After more than 20 minutes of back-and-forth action, Canfield’s Ben Weaver scored five points in the final minute of the third quarter to push the Cardinals’ lead to seven, the largest of the game to that point.

Unlike the first three quarters, Warrensville Heights failed to respond accordingly as Canfield continued to build upon its advantage, wisely utilizing the lead and stretching out its offensive possessions to force Warrensville Heights to foul. As a result, Canfield utterly dominated the final period, outscoring the Tigers 20-5.

After the victory, Canfield head coach John Cullen praised his seniors for their sense of urgency.

“They all have really stepped it up at the end,” Cullen said. “I think sometimes the finality of ‘one and done’ — it brings a different gear into people’s lives. And they’ve all done exactly what you should do: respect everybody, but don’t fear anybody and make sure that you prepare for what’s ahead.”

Neither team’s offense got off to a pleasant start; Warrensville Heights scored only one field goal in the first four and a half minutes, while it took just as nearly long for Canfield to record its first made basket.

In the first, while four different Tigers scored, Canfield mainly relied on senior Tony Russo, who scored seven of the Cardinals’ first 13 points. Canfield took a slim advantage into the second, where its offensive diet became more diverse.

Unlike the first, the Cardinals found success incorporating Drew Shapiro, Sam Castronova and Weaver into the offense. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, despite their relative efficiency, Warrensville Heights kept pace nearly every step of the way. After a Canfield foul with 0.1 seconds remaining in the second quarter, Tigers guard Chris Brownlee Jr. hit three free throws to cut the deficit to three going into halftime.

After seven more minutes of competitive action, Weaver’s five points in the final minute of the third quarter ended up sparking a blowout in the fourth.

“When we get a little lead and we can go ‘four to score,’ which just spreads them out, no team wants to guard [us] for longer than 45 seconds,” Russo said. “If we have open threes, maybe we don’t take it and we make them guard for 30 more seconds. It slowly builds and builds and then they’re just not going to keep wanting to guard it.”

Russo, who scored a game-high 17 points Thursday, said reaching the regional final was not only a goal, but something the team almost expected.

“Last year, we fell short in the district championship, but even when we lost some players that are really important to us, our goal was always to make it to states, so I think that we were kind of expecting it,” Russo said.

Canfield’s win sets up a rematch three months in the making with Ursuline, which crushed Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph in the game preceding Canfield’s. The Cardinals lost to the Irish 70-60 back in December in one of the first games of the season for each team.

“We kind of got beat on the offensive glass and defensive glass,” Russo said. “I think this time around, we’re gonna really focus on having five guys go to the boards in order to secure rebounds and not give them those second-chance points that kind of cost us the game.”

Cullen said stopping senior center Jaden Payne on Saturday will be imperative.

“I remember Payne was obliertating us inside there, so we gotta do something to stop that or limit that,” Cullen said. “We held Gunther down a little bit in that game because Shapiro’s pretty good at guarding him and they’re about the same size. We just got to make sure that nobody has a career game against us.”

Canfield and Ursuline’s matchup ensures that at least one local team will be heading to Dayton for the Division II state semifinals.

“I think it’s just special that two teams from Youngstown — one of us get to go to the state tournament,” Russo said. “It’s not really a hate thing. I think it’s honestly really cool to see two teams from Youngstown being able to play in the state tournament.”

Cullen echoed Russo’s sentiment, remarking at the area’s strength this season; in addition to Ursuline and Canfield, Warren JFK and Cardinal Mooney have the opportunity to qualify for the state semifinals in Division IV and III, respectively.

“I think it’s a big deal,” Cullen said. “Now we got four teams, and I can’t remember ever having four teams from Mahoning, Trumbull County in the final eight. Now we’re here, so let’s see what happens.”

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