Luke Floriea's career-high 39 points propel No. 6 Mentor past Euclid, 72-61

MENTOR, Ohio — Basketball rims are 18 inches in diameter.

The two inside Mentor High School might as well have been 18 feet wide with the way Luke Floriea shot Tuesday night against Euclid. The junior point guard sank eight 3-pointers and scored a career-high 39 points to lead Mentor's 72-61 Greater Cleveland Conference win. Floriea just saw the Panthers' zone defense as a green light to shoot from deep.

"It was just my teammates just getting me the ball and giving me good shots," he said. "They were running that zone the first three quarters, and I would just move around and try to find pockets of open areas."

If the defense crept out on him, he proved able to drive inside, too.

"They're hard enough to defend as it is with the five guys averaging over 10 points," Euclid coach T.J. Kwasniak said. "When they've got a guy going crazy like that, it's really difficult."

The unbeaten Cardinals (8-0, 5-0 GCC), ranked sixth in the cleveland.com Top 25, separated themselves from Euclid (4-5, 2-3) with an eight-point run to close the first quarter. They led by 18 in the first half. The advantage remained there for the first three quarters, as Floriea launched up shots when he found an open angle.

"One, I didn't even know where the 3-point line was," Floriea said. "I thought if that didn't go in, I was probably going to get benched. But it went in."

In addition to Floriea's night, senior Alex Edwards added 13 points with three 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Luke Chicone added two more 3s and finished with eight. Junior Chad Rogers and senior Mason Trubisky supplied the muscle, with Rogers hauling in 15 rebounds and Trubisky adding 10.

They continued a stellar run that coach Bob Krizancic sensed possible this summer, and it started with those guards.

"I made this statement early: I thought we had the best guards in the state," he said. "That's a crazy statement when they're kind of unproven. But we saw in the summer and the offseason — more than anything else — I like the mentality."

They have overcome each challenge so far, and Tuesday's came with Euclid junior point guard Garvin Clarke and a tall, athletic lineup. Clarke scored 20 points with five assists and a few steals. Senior forward Mario Lacy added 18 points and nine boards, helping Euclid pull within nine points late in the fourth quarter.

"Tempo was huge," Krizancic said. "I thought we wore them out a little. The good thing about this one was we didn't play a good fourth quarter and we didn't shoot well in the second half overall."

To Krizancic, it showed more potential for a team that had just one returning starter and few seniors outside of Edwards and Trubisky.

"We're still a very, very young team," Krizancic said, "and to be 9-0 right now and still learning, I think our window's huge."

In the last stretch of games, Floriea and Chicone have provided bursts of offense. Chicone scored 27 points in a late December win against Benedictine. Leading up to Tuesday, Floriea supplied games of 11, six and 11 assists in wins against Willoughby South, Benedictine and Brunswick. The Cardinals' next test is Friday at home vs. Medina. Euclid hosts Elyria that same night.

"If you wanted to script it, it couldn't be any better," said Krizancic before praising his players who come off the bench. "Our locker room is phenomenal. Kids absolutely pull for each other, like each other. It's as good as I've seen as long as I've coached."

There is just one worry that comes with that.

"I tell them, 'Don't think we're better than we are right now,'" Krizancic said. "A young team, you're 9-0 and everyone's patting you on the back. That's my biggest fear."

Contact sports reporter Matt Goul on Twitter (@mgoul) or email ([email protected]). Or log in and leave a message below in the comments section.