Blue Dons get offense going against Crusaders
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WEIRTON -- Madonna got its offense going early, built a big lead and never looked back in taking down cross-river rival Catholic Central 66-45 Friday inside the Dube Dome.
The Blue Dons put 20 points on the board in the first quarter. 10 of them coming after Central's Daniel Bolster opened the game by draining a long distance bomb.
Luke Amaismeier, Lennon Dietrich and Matt Amaismeier all knocked down three balls to lead the Madonna point explosion. Dietrich and Matt Amaismeier finished the opening stanza with five points apiece. Anthony Mascio came off George Vargo's bench to contribute six points in the second and the Blue Dons led 32-19 at the intermission. They then outscored the Crusaders 17-9 in the third. With the win, Madonna, which was playing its home opener, improves to 2-1.
"I think we have some nice offensive punch here," Vargo said. "We have some height and we have five seniors on the team. When you have that many seniors, good things can happen. These guys paid their dues the last couple of years and hopefully they can enjoy some wins this season.
"This was only game three, so you always have some things to clean up. We shared the ball well and we played good, hard defense. I'm real happy with the team right now. It's nice to be at home and win."
Three players reached double figures for Madonna and a fourth just missed. M. Amaismeier led the way with 15. Dietrich and Mascio evenly divided 24 and Luca Muzzi tallied eight.
"What's nice about that is you have two guys in Lennon and Anthony coming off the bench and giving you 24 points," Vargo said. "As a coach, you have to love that."
Central's Bolster took game scoring honors with 17. He had five makes from behind the arc. Andrew Dorsey finished with 12 and Timmy Mihalyo 9, all coming via triples. The Crusaders finished with 10 3-pointers.
"We have a young team and we emphasized to our guys coming that we had to bring effort," Central coach Don Ogden said. "We told them without effort, we can't do anything. Once we bring effort, we can start building on that then begin looking at our execution. But, again, you can't do anything without effort.
"Even though we were down, we didn't concede. Our message tonight was we were not going to give up until the final buzzer and we didn't. The score was lopsided and I hate for that happen but we have to stay positive with the kids. We have to keep working with them to develop into a better team down the road."
The effort put forth by the Crusaders appeared to have caught Vargo's attention.
"Don had his team ready to play tonight," the Blue Don bench boss said. "After losing their last couple of games, he did a good job of getting them ready to play. They could have been mentally down but they weren't and I give Don credit for that."
CLEAN SWEEP
Koleton Griskevich scored a game-high 23 points as Madonna collected a 52-50 victory in the junior varsity game.
David Connors contributed 12 and Lucas McAllister 11.
Mihalyo netted 15 to pace Central. Benedict Urbanczyk added 11.
UP NEXT
The Crusaders are back at it Tuesday when they travel to Brooke.
Madonna is idle until Thursday when it entertains Beallsville.
Madonna 66, Catholic Central 45
Central 7 12 9 17--45
Madonna 20 12 17 17--66
CATHOLIC CENTRAL (0-6): Long 0 0-0 0; Rook 1 0-0 3; Pergi 0 2-4 2; Dorsey 4 3-5 12; Bolster 6 0-0 17; Harris 1 0-0 2; Grimm 0 0-0 0; Mihalyo 3 0-0 9; Bradley 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15 5-9 45.
MADONNA (2-1): L. Amaismeier 1 2-3 5; Mascio 6 0-0 12; DoBraska 2 0-0 5; Pietranton 0 0-0 0; Arlia 3 0-1 6; Dietrich 5 0-1 12; Muzzi 4 0-2 8; M. Amaismeier 6 2-2 15; Bone 1 1-2 3. TOTALS: 28 5-8 66.
3-POINT GOALS: Central 10 (Bolster 5; Mihalyo 3; Rook, Dorsey); Madonna 5 (Dietrich 2; L. Amaismeier; DoBraska; M. Amaismeier).