Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Canfield's Marina Koenig drives to the basket during the second half of the Cardinals' district final contest with Crestwood on Saturday at Lordstown.

LORDSTOWN — Marina Koenig has had a difficult and emotional week.

On the court, the Canfield senior has been working through some recent shooting struggles, while off the court, she’s been dealing with the recent passing of a close family member.

Fueled by her loved one’s memory, Koenig shook off her recent shooting woes on Saturday to knock down four 3-pointers en route to scoring 14 points in the Cardinals’ 62-37 victory over Mantua Crestwood in the Division IV, Northeast 2 district final at Lordstown.

“To be able to come out and play hard for him was a really special thing for me,” Koenig said. “For me to be able to play well and have a couple points for him — he’s looking down on us, and being able to stay focused for my team was really the goal for me.

“I’ve been working hard this week. (My shot) hasn’t really felt great lately. So I knew with the work I put in this week, I was able to knock a couple down, and it felt good.”

The district title was Canfield’s second in the last three seasons after previously going 10 years since its last championship. The Cardinals also advanced to the district final last year, but came up short to Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.

“We felt we had some teams in that (10-year) stretch where we didn’t win a district title that could have when it was four divisions,” Canfield head coach Matt Reel said. “In Division I, we had some teams we thought were really good, but trying to get through that district in Division I was really tough. But this group has just been spectacular in terms of their participation, their focus and their commitment. It’s one of the best I’ve had in 30 years, and they deserve everything they’re getting here.”

The Cardinals’ defense has long been the cornerstone for the team and program’s success, and to start the game, they showed what their defense is capable of at its best.

Canfield forced misses and countless turnovers as it jumped out to a 16-0 lead before Crestwood scored its first basket.

“We like to emphasize (starting like) that, but part of it was that we got some easy layups, and when you get those layups to go in, you get some (outside) shots,” Reel said. “You always like to start well in that situation, but you never know. I thought today our defense was really active, especially at the beginning. It created a lot of offense for us, which I think took the pressure off a lot of our girls who really aren’t that experienced with it.”

By halftime, Canfield had grown its lead to 40-16, and Jenna Triveri scored 16 of her game-high 21 points.

But in the third quarter, the Cardinals went cold. Canfield made just one field goal, a Koenig three, and scored just five points during the period as Crestwood cut into the lead.

“It was like an alien species had taken over our girls — they had a confused look, and we kept doing the same thing over and over,” Reel said. “A lot of it was our pressure. I think it’s really tough sometimes when you have that big lead. They came out on fire a little bit, getting after us, and we didn’t respond realy well and we didn’t get to our spots.”

In the fourth quarter, the Cardinals shook off their third-quarter issues and picked up right where they left off in the first half, opening the period on a 7-0 run.

Koenig was a key part of that stretch, as she knocked down her fourth three of the afternoon and finished a fast-break layup.

“I thought Marina hit some big shots. Coach (Bill) Wolf and Coach (Pat Pavlansky) before myself would always say that in tournament play, your seniors are going to take you as far as they can go,” Reel said. “I thought both our seniors today, in different ways, gave us that spark. Marina hit big shots when we were struggling and nothing was going right, and she stepped up like a senior should. … I’m just really proud of her for everything she’s done in this game and how important she is to us.”

For the game, Canfield held the Red Devils to 34.1% shooting overall and just 27.3% from beyond the arc. Crestwood’s 37 points tied its second-lowest scoring total of the season.

“It’s all about our defense,” Koenig said. “Our defense is what we rely on. We rely on steals, we rely on turnovers, we rely on everything. Our defense gets us free and open layups. … That’s what fuels our offense at times. Then on offense, we get open threes and that comes after we get a couple layups to go in first.”

Canfield advances to the Division IV regional semifinal on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Canton Memorial Fieldhouse against No. 7 seed Streetsboro, which won the Northeast 4 district title on Saturday by beating Mogadore Field 60-48. The Rockets defeated the Cardinals 38-30 during the regular season on Feb. 8.