MCKINLEY 81, GREEN 61
Ronnell “Tae” Perie exploded for a season-high 30 points and Kobe Johnson registered 25 as McKinley pulled away from host Green in the second half for an 81-61 Federal League win. Perie, the senior guard in his first year with McKinley (11-3, 9-0) after transferring from Buchtel, scored 23 points after halftime, including 14 in a 25-point third quarter for the Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, Johnson added five rebounds and four assists as he earned some bragging rights in his own family.
The West Virginia recruit’s 25 points move him past Gary Grant (1,361) into third place on McKinley’s all-time scoring list with 1,362 career points. He also moved from No. 27 to No. 24 on Stark County’s all-time scoring list, passing his father and McKinley assistant coach Chet Harper, along with Minerva’s Connor Wright and Grant.
Perie knocked down six 3-pointers and Johnson made four on a night McKinley shot 13-of-26 from deep as a team.
“I think some of that was a byproduct of sharing the basketball and moving the basketball and good shooters taking good shots,” McKinley head coach Andy Vlajkovich said.
Brent Walker grabbed nine rebounds for McKinley, which has a big weekend coming up with Jackson on Friday and Cincinnati Moeller on Saturday — the third- and second-ranked teams in the state’s Associated Press Division I Poll. McKinley is 11th.
Jonah Lytle added four assists and four steals as McKinley’s pressure took a toll on Green. McKinley blocked seven shots overall.
“I thought we showed some maturity and I thought our pressure wore them down,” Vlajkovich said. “It’s one of those classic examples when you give up a couple of easy ones in the first half, it can frustrate a coach. But you’ve just got to trust it.”
McKinley made five of its first six 3-point tries. But Green hung in there and led 24-23 three minutes into the second quarter. Green trailed only 35-32 when Trey Martin scored in the lane early in the third quarter.
It was all McKinley from there. Perie scored seven points during a quick 9-0 McKinley run and Green (6-9, 5-4) never got its deficit back into single digits.
“They’re just so talented offensively in multiple spots, you can’t take away everything,” Green head coach Mark Kinsley said. “You’ve just got to hope they don’t shoot the ball well, and, obviously, tonight they did.”
Martin led Green with 22 points to go with five rebounds. Brady Rollyson had 16 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Zack Oddo added 11 points, all in the first half.
“We shot the ball well,” Vlajkovich said. “I think it masked some sins that we commit from time to time. I’m not particularly thrilled about our rebounding. But I thought we shared the ball tonight and I thought we shot it well tonight. I think when you share it you just shoot a much higher percentage.”
LAKE 65, GLENOAK 62 JJ Vaughan made six 3-pointers and poured in 29 points as the host Blue Streaks held off a GlenOak rally to win their third consecutive Federal League game. The three-game winning streak comes on the heels of a 20-game losing streak within the league that was snapped just last week by Lake (5-10, 3-8). Sam Oliver and Brody Gowen had 14 points each to lead GlenOak (6-9, 2-8), which has lost seven of its last eight games. JJ Mucci also had 10 points for the Golden Eagles.