BOYS BASKETBALL Ursuline opens with 85-62 romp past Central Catholic

The Irish used 13 players in their season opener, and nine of them have had varsity experience.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ursuline High senior Kevin Coleman drained three straight 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the second half against Canton Central Catholic -- officially turning Saturday's game into a rout.
With his team down 57-29 at that point, all Crusader coach Doug Miller could do was bury his head into his hands and sigh.
"We can't do anything against that," Miller said to one of his assistants. "What are we gonna do to stop that?"
Good question. Central couldn't do much of anything against Ursuline, as the Irish opened up a 15-0 lead en route to a 85-62 season-opening win at Ursuline High School.
"We talked before the game about having a total team effort," said Ursuline coach Steve Leslie. "Everyone came in and contributed."
13 players: The Irish (1-0) played 13 players against Central -- and have nine players with varsity experience from last year's 5-17 team. The Irish lost just one player to graduation, Steve Stroney.
The experience showed, as the Irish maintained an attacking style the entire game that led to a 22-11 assist-to-turnover ratio.
"We couldn't be more pleased with that," Leslie said of the 11 turnovers. "We try to get the game as fast-paced as possible and get up and down the floor to take advantage of our athletic ability."
Leader: Junior Isaiah Poindexter led Ursuline with 19 points, and teamed with seniors Jimmy Riley and Marc Palermo early on to create havoc on defense that led to easy layup opportunities.
"We just wanted to come out and play hard," said Poindexter. "We wanted to get some guys going and Kevin Coleman came in and knocked down some open shots. We just tried to keep the tempo up."
Central didn't score until 3:43 remaining in the first quarter, and scored just 25 points in the first half. The Crusaders trailed 47-25 at halftime.
Coleman took Ursuline's first five shots of the second half, hitting three behind the arc for his only points of the game.
"We try not to get into a slow-down game," said Leslie. "We wanted to get Coleman some jump shots. He's a great perimeter shooter and he showed what he's capable of doing."
Substititions: From then on, both coaches played "Who wants to letter?" as Central substituted for all five players on the floor on four different occasions.
Senior Vince Gliatta led Central with 16 points -- the only Crusader in double figures. Corey Watson had seven points and five rebounds in the loss.
Palermo had 15 points for Ursuline -- all in the first half. Jimmy Riley had nine points, and Andre Foster added eight points and four rebounds.
The only complaint about the victory was that no Irish player had a dunk.
"I'll make sure I get one next time," Poindexter said.
scalzo@vindy.com