Lake Catholic Boys Basketball Team Beats Struthers

There are no weak teams in the OHSAA regional tournament.

No, the lesser teams are all weeded out during the regular season and early rounds of the sectional tournament.

So 's boys basketball team not only won Thursday, 68-39, to advance to the regional final, they did it against a strong team.

Looking at the final score and how easy Lake Catholic sometimes made it look, it is easy to forget that.

The Cougars played a compete game and had a comfortable 11-point lead at the end of the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter, the game shifted into a blowout with Lake Catholic outscoring Struthers 27-9.

Mark Baniewicz led the team's scoring with 23 points but contributions came from throughout the lineup.

Seniors Mike Whalen and Joey Vuyancih also scored in double digits and 10 different Cougars put up points for the team. Additionally, Vuyancih -- -- grabbed 13 rebounds.

Jordan Sapp played hard for Struthers, scoring 26 single-handedly. He earned all 13 of his teams' points in the third quarter -- the only quarter in which Struthers was not outscored by Lake Catholic.

Lake Catholic advances to thie regional championship game at 3 p.m. this Saturday. They will face St. Vincent-St. Mary, which was one of only two teams to beat the Cougars during the season.