For an impressive third consecutive season, St Peter’s will play for a boy's basketball Regional championship after taking care of East Canton in the Division IV Canton Regional Semifinals by a score of 68-56. The game was certainly closer than the margin would suggest as the #7 Hornets (19-8), who knocked out the #2, #3 and #4 seed to win their District tournament played the top-ranked Spartans tough throughout the contest.

 

East Canton held a 12-5 1st quarter edge before St Peter’s closed the half on a 26-12 scoring run for a 31-24 halftime advantage. Led by Jared Jakubick’s game-high 30 points and Elijah Cobb’s 19, the Spartans extended their lead to 47-36 to start the 4th quarter and kept the margin near double-figures for the majority of the frame. The Hornets would threaten late, however, trimming the gap down to just four in the final minute before a pair of costly technical fouls sent Jakubick to the line where he iced the game, connecting on all nine of his 4th quarter attempts from the charity stripe.

 

Dallas Moldovan paced East Canton’s scoring attack with 13 pts with Joey Knopp adding 12 and both Anthony Baad and Mitch Mitchell contributing with 9 pts each. St Peter’s bench did not score a single point as starters Jonah Ramey (8), Luke Henrich (7) and Caleb Stewart (4) added to Jakubick and Cobb’s 49 combined points.

 

The #1 Spartans are now 27-0, tying the program record for most wins in a season, and will play #9 Cornerstone Christian Academy (19-7) for the Canton Regional Championship at 7 pm on Friday at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse.