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By John Miller
Springfield, MO – The challenge for the Glendale Falcons in every game this year (and every game in recent program history) is dealing with an opponent with size.
The Falcons, with no player on their roster taller than 6-foot-3, haven’t had a true center since current Drury coach Steve Hesser led the program in the early 2000s.
On Tuesday afternoon, facing a Mansfield team that starts 6-foot-9 Dylan Caruso, Glendale got the Lions’ big-man in foul problem early, got him out of the game, and used a big second-quarter run to fuel a 72-64 win in the Blue Division quarterfinals at JQH Arena.
Glendale, the tournament’s two-seed, will now face third-seed Hartville in the semifinals on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Caruso finished with 17 points and seven rebounds for the Lions, but his playing time was limited after picking up his third foul with 1:57 remaining in the first quarter.
“That was huge, obviously,” Glendale coach Brian McTague said. “We’re going to be the smallest team on every court we play on this year, so to get a 6-foot-9 kid out of the game was huge for us. We had a hard time in our rotations with him because we don’t have anybody to match up with him in the first place, and once you switch another kid onto him, it usually gets smaller.”
Monty Johal, playing with three braces missing on his upper front teeth after taking a spill against Branson in Monday’s opening round, led Glendale with 25 points and seven rebounds. Garrett Freeman added 19 points for the Falcons and Jordan Walton had 11. Mason Roy scored 13 points and Jonah Williamson had 11 for Mansfield.
Glendale (5-4) had the game taken to them in the first quarter by seventh-seed Mansfield (6-3), who scored the game’s first four points and led 18-14 at the end of the period.
“We were just sleepwalking,” McTague said. “We weren’t getting in a stance and competing. Mansfield’s a good team, and we tried to convey that Mansfield’s a really good team. You can’t pay attention to what class they are. They’ve got a hall of fame coach, good size, and great athletes. We knew they were going to come out here and compete and play hard.
“I didn’t think our kids did a good job of matching that early on, but as the game went on and the situation became more dire, we started getting in a stance and getting our hands on more stuff and were able to fortunately put them away.”
Mansfield led 20-14 nearly three minutes into the second quarter before Glendale went on its run—an 18-2 spurt that put the Falcons in front for good. Glendale forced six turnovers in the second quarter, leading to easy baskets that fueled the rally.
“After the first quarter, our guards started pressuring more and our rotations got a little bit quicker on the back side of our defense,” Johal said.
The Falcons forced 23 turnovers and had 17 steals, turning its defense into easy offense.
“That’s always our goal,” McTague said. “Once you start pushing it up and down a little bit more, that’s where we have success. We’re a work in progress. We’re getting better all the time, but we’re far from being done.”
Glendale built its lead to 11 points (65-54) in the fourth quarter with 2:42 remaining, but Mansfield battled back. Back-to-back treys from Roy and Sean Neal cut the deficit to 65-60, and then Spencer Greene added a layup to make it a three-point game.
But Johal and Freeman combined to go 9-for-12 from the foul line in the fourth, closing out the Lions chances.
“They never gave up,” Johal said. “They’re a good team. We just have to execute better. We’ll learn from it.”
The Falcons know they’ll have to be better from the jump on Wednesday if they want a chance to play for Glendale’s first Blue and Gold championship since 2010.
“We’ve got to come a lot more focused (Wednesday) than we were (Tuesday),” Johal said. “We’ve got to be ready to play hard and come with excitement and energy.”
Glendale 14 19 17 22 72
Mansfield 18 10 16 20 64
Glendale: Johal 25, Freeman 19, Walton 11, Davis 8, Call 7, Metivier 2
Mansfield: Caurso 17, Roy 13 ,Williamson 11, Watterson 9, Greene 5, Emerick 4, Neal 3, Berry 2
