"Redemption in Youngtown", Pavlik Obliterates Rubio!

The  largest crowd in Chevrolet Center history  gathered Saturday night to see home town hero Kelly Pavlik redeem himself after suffering his first defeat in his career against Bernard Hopkins in October.  The crowd noise was deafening when Pavlik came out of the tunnel.  He then delivered a nearly flawless performance in the ring against challenger Marco Antonio Rubio.  According to compubox stats Pavlik threw nearly twice as many punches in the fights as Rubio.  Pavlik threw 695 punches as opposed to only 351 for Rubio. Pavlik connected on 146 punches for a 21 percent clip in improving his career record to 35-1.  Rubio connected on 23 percent of his punches in a losing effort.  Rubio was "one tough hombre".  

   Jim Tressel, Bob Stoops, A.J. Hawk and Brady Quinn were amongst the known commodities in attendance.  Former Ohio State quarterback and current ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit was also in attendance. He told the Cleveland Plain Dealer he is not a boxing fan but he is a fan of Pavlik because he is a local guy.  Pavlik won all nine rounds thoroughly dominating Rubio.  Although he did not knock Rubio down Pavlik dictated the entire fight and retained his WBC middleweight crown.  The only round which had any doubt was the sixth. It was the only round that Rubio seemed to go "punch for punch" with Pavlik.  All in all it was a great night for Kelly as he had the entire crowd chanting "Kelly, Kelly" throughout most of the evening.  Pavlik's next fight  is starting to be talked about. It most likely will be at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.  Sergio Mora, Vernon Forrest and John Duddy are on the short list of candidates to be "the challenger". June 20th is a possible date. Pavlik fans can only hope it is half of what Saturday night was.    

Gannon Flexes Muscle at Lake Erie!

The fourth ranked Gannon University Golden Knights (20-3) proved to be to much for the third straight time against the Lake Erie College Storm (7-18) on Monday night at the Athletics Center Arena in Painesville.  The Golden Knights proved to be to much in the paint for the "green and white" outscoring Lake Erie 34-12.  The fourth ranked Golden Knights rolled to a 76-41 win.  Three players scored in double figures for Gannon.  Pierre Howard led the "gold clad" Knights with 17 points, Kyle Goldcamp tallied a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards.  Joe Lindsey rounded out the double digit scorers for the squad from Erie,Pa scoring 14.  

  The Storm were led by 10 points from Ethan Bradshaw.  He was 2 of 11 from the floor and 5 of 8 at the charity stripe.  Evan Garret tallied 7 points for the Storm. Leading scorers Derrick Thornton and Rick Leasure were held well below there season averages scoring 7, and 6 points respectively.  Thornton came in averaging 16.5 points a game while Leasure averages 13.7. They were virtually shut down by the stifling defense of the Golden Knights.  Leasure was 2 of 12 from the floor while Thornton only attempted six shots making 3.  Lake Erie did have a season high total in block shots with seven.  Derrick Thornton and Matt Grendel swatted three shots each while Ethan Bradshaw also blocked a shot.  

   The Storm starting out the game with John Dickinson draining a three from the top of the key  to take a 3-0 lead.  Gannon would then go an a 19-0 run over the next ten minutes and never look back.  Gannon's biggest lead of the game would be 35 on two different occasions.  

    Gannon would shoot 45 percent from the field while the Storm would shoot a frigid 26.1 percent including a chilly 21 percent in the first half.  Gannon made 8 of 21 from long distance while Lake Erie was 4 for 20 from "beyond the arc".  The Golden Knights would make good on 6 of 7 from the charity stripe while the Storm went 13 of 19.  Gannon owned the glass holding a 49-26 rebounding advantage which resulted in 23 more shot attempts for the Golden Knights.  The Storm committed 20 turnovers while Gannon "coughed it up" 16 times.  The 20 turnovers by the Storm cost them 29 points.  Gannon had 16 steals as opposed to six for the Storm. Lake Erie will be back in action Saturday.  It will be fan appreciation day as well as Senior day for the five seniors at Lake Erie.  The woman will start at 2 PM while the men follow at 4. You can catch all the action on WELW 1330 AM.     

Falcons Hold Off Late WilberForce Rally!

The Notre Dame College Falcons (17-9) staved off a late rally by WilberForce (9-15) for a 67-61 win at Murphy Gymnasium on Wednesday evening.  

   Notre Dame had three players score in double digits on the evening.  Dan Jones led the way with 17 points on 6 of 13 shooting. Jones was 4 of 8 at the line. Eric Dummermuth had a double- double for Notre Dame as he would score 16 points and grab 10 rebounds.  Dummermuth was 6 of 15 from the floor and 4 of 6 at the charity stripe.  Erc Maag would chip in 11 points for the "blue and white".  Maag was 2 of 6 from the floor.  He made 5 of 6 from the foul line.  

   WilberForce was led by 18 points and 12 rebounds from Phillip Moore.  Moore was 7-14 from the floor  and 4 of 4 at the line.  Moore was the only Bulldog in double digits.  Adam Reese scored 8, Cordell Hall and Chris Olafioye had 7 each.   

    The game would begin with a technical foul, which was one of two for WilberForce on the evening.  Dan Jones could not convert on either of the technical free throws.  The second would come in the middle of the second half as WilberForce had six players on the floor. Eric Maag would hit 1 of 2 on that trip.  WilberForce would come out hot in the early stages of the game. After Dan Jones starting the scoring WilberForce would go on a 9-1 run to take a 9-3 lead on a jumper by Tim Giles.  The Falcons would counter with a 8-0 run as Eric Maag would drain a trey with 15 minutes to go in the first half to give Notre Dame a 11-9 lead.  The "blue and white" would increase that lead to 11 at 31-20 on a bank shot by Steve Savel.  The teams would trade baskets the rest of the first half and the Falcons would take a 40-30 lead at halftime. 

   WilberForce would come out hot in the second stanza.   The teams would go back and forth for beginning stages of the half with Notre Dame still holding a twelve point lead. WilberForce would cut that lead to five at 46-41 as DeAndre Johnson split a pair of free throws with 14:45 to go.  The Falcons would stretch the lead back out to thirteen at 56-43 on a three ball by Dan Jones.  WilberForce would go on a 7-0 run to cut the lead back to six  56-50 on a Adam Reese jumper with 9:20 to go.  The Bulldogs would not get any closer than five as Eric Maag and Nick McCartney would ice the victory for the Falcons in the waning seconds from the stripe.  

   Notre Dame shot 38 percent from the floor as compared to 39 percent for WilberForce.  WilberForce would make 4 of 18 treys (22%) as opposed to 6-16 (38%).  The Bulldogs were 11-13 (85%) at the foul line. The Falcons struggled going 17-28 (61%) at the line.  The Bulldogs had the edge on the glass 42-39.  The Falcons had 13 assists as opposed to 12 for the Bulldogs.  WilberForce turned the ball over 16 times as compared to 12 for Notre Dame.  WilberForce had 2 blocks as opposed to 1 for the Falcons.  Notre Dame had 5 steals (McFarlane 3), the Bulldogs had 4 steals.  The Falcons will be back in action Saturday at Walsh. Tip time is set for 4 PM.   

Big Second Half Lifts Lady Falcons By WilberForce!

After getting off to a slow start the Notre Dame Lady Falcons (17-10) stopped a three game losing skid  with a 79-64 win over the WilberForce Lady Bulldogs (6-18) at Murphy Gymnasium Wednesday evening.  The Lady Falcons dominated the second half outscoring the Lady Bulldogs 45-36.  This was after the Lady Falcons had a 34-28 lead at the intermission. 

  The Lady Falcons were led by three players in double figures.  Yvette Hunter led the way with a double-double. She tallied 22 points and 13 rebounds on 10 of 15 shooting.  Taryn Wicks added 16 points on 5 of 7 from the floor. Wicks played 23 minutes after Ashley Carney injured her knee in the first half.  Erika Falcone was nearly perfect as she went 6 of 7 from the floor and 2 of 2 from the charity stripe. Falcone had 14 points and 4 boards.  

  The Lady Bulldogs had three players in double figures.  Deidra Brown was the leading scorer tallying 19 points on 8 of 19 shooting.  She was 2 of 5 from three point land and 1 of 2 at the charity stripe.  Tamarra Moss had a double-double scoring 17 points and grabbing 15 rebounds.  Moss was 6-11 from the floor, 1 of 1 in treys, and 4 of 8 at the foul line.   Moss had 12 of her 15 rebounds in the first half.  Dai'Tiara Brown was the last Lady Bulldog in double figures.  Brown was 6 of 15 from the floor for her 14 points.  She was 2 of 2 at the line and 0 for 3 from long range.  

    WilberForce would come out and take a 10-6 lead in the first seven minutes of the game.  Notre Dame would then go on a 8-0 run to take a 14-10 lead on 2 free throws by Erika Falcone.  WilberForce would counter with a 6-0 run of their own to make it 16-14 on a jumper by Deidra Brown  with a little under 10 minutes to play in the first half.  WilberForce would stretch that lead out to seven at 24-17  with 6:10 to play in the first half.  The Lady Falcons would then go on a 13-0 run to take a 30-24 lead on a Yvette Hunter bucket.  The teams would trade buckets late in the first half as the "blue and white" would take a 34-28 lead at the break. 

   WilberForce would come out of the gate quickly and score the first four points of the second half to cut the Lady Falcon lead to three.  The teams would trade buckets for about the next three minutes until a 16-6 Notre Dame burst would give them a 15 point lead at 56-41.   The run was capped by a pair of Amanda Brown free throws.  WilberForce would then go on a 8-0 run to cut the lead to 56-49 with 10:10 to go in the game. Mauryce Neal's bucket cut the lead to seven.  The Lady Falcons would then stretch the lead back out to 13 on a pair of Taryn Wicks free throws with 8:10 to go.  A mini run by WilberForce would cut the lead to eight but that is as close as they would get as the Lady Falcons would go on to the 79-64 victory.  

   Notre Dame shot 48 percent as compared to 37 percent for WilberForce.  The Lady Falcons missed on all 6 three point attempts while the Lady Bulldogs were 3 of 15.  Notre Dame shot 78 percent at the charity stripe (21-27) as compared to 56 percent (9-16) for WilberForce.  The Lady Falcons dominated the glass  47-35.  WilberForce only had 4 assists on 26 made field goals while the Lady Falcons had 20 assists on 29 made field goals.  Notre Dame had 21 turnovers as opposed to 20 for WilberForce.  Notre Dame had 5 blocks including 2 by Yvette Hunter.  Deidra Brown had the lone block for the Lady Bulldogs.  WilberForce had 13 steals (4 by Deidra Brown).  The Lady Falcons had 4 steals, 3 by Amanda Brown.  The Lady Falcons will be back in action at Walsh on Saturday. Tip time is set for 2 PM.  

Big Second Half Leads Urbana Past Lake Erie!

Led by a big second half in which they outscored Lake Erie 53-39 the Blue Knights from Urbana (6-18) rallied for a 82-76 win over the home standing Storm (5-17) at the University Athletics Center.  

   The Blue Knights had three players score in double figures led by 26 points from David Brown. 18 of Brown's 26 came in the final twenty minutes.  T.R. Ellis had 21 including sixteen in the second stanza.  Marcus Pearl chipped in 13, including nine in the second half. The Blue Knights shot 40 percent from the field, including 16-35 (47%) in the second half.  The Blue Knights hit 5 of 16 trey's and were 27-35 (78%) from the charity stripe.  

   The Storm was led by a monster game from Derrick Thornton who talied 25 points.  He was a perfect 5 of 5 from the field on his way to 14 first half points.  Ethan Bradshaw and Scott Aston each had 14 for the green and white.  Rick Leisure was only 3 of 14 from the floor and held to only 9 points in a rare subpar game for him.  Lake Erie shot 41 percent from the field and 37 percent from long range.  The big difference for the second straight time against Urbana was the charity stripe. What aided the Storm in the win last saturday was there downfall this Saturday.  The Storm went 10 of 15 from the charity stripe.  This was the difference, as comparably it was Urbana shooting 35.  The Storm will be back in action Tuesday when they travel to Ohio Dominican, Tip time is set for 7:30 PM.    

Lady Storm Comeback Attempt Falls Short!

As has been the case so often this season the Lake Erie woman dug to big a hole for themselves to dig out of in the first half and it was to much to overcome. The Lady Storm (6-18) had their comeback attempt fall short 60-57.  

The Urbana Blue Knights (13-10)were led by a double-double from Jalyssa Jackson (15 pts, 14 rebounds),

Vanessa Gantz (13), Tia Simms (11) and Haley Ducey tallied double figures for the Lady Knights.  Urbana was 18-53 (34 percent) from the field.  The Lady Knights made good on 3 of 6 from long range.  Urbana was a solid 21-27 (77%) from the charity stripe. 

   Lake Erie was led by 16 points from Renese Adams.  She only was 6 of 20 from the floor in the game. Britt Busson and Stephanie Rogers added 13 apiece for the Lady Storm.  Lake Erie shot just 38 percent from the field.  They struggled from long range (1 of 15) and at the charity stripe (14-23).  

   As has been the case so many times this season Lake Erie fell behind big at the break. It was 41-26 for the Lady Knights at halftime.  Lake Erie then would outscore Urbana 31-19 in the second half but it woudn't be enough.  Renese Ames had a three that went off the front rim with 5 seconds to go that would have tied it. After a missed front end of a one and one by Jalyssa Jackson the Lady Storm would have one last chance but time expired before a three point attempt could be hoisted.  Lake Erie will be back in action when they play at Northern Kentucky Tuesday. Tip time is set for 7 PM.