THURSDAY GIRLS Davidson leads Irish to 5th win
By GARY HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CANFIELD -- Although the Ursuline High girls basketball team began the fourth quarter with a five-point lead and finished the contest with 60-53 victory over Canfield, the game Thursday was up for grabs as late as midway through the final period.
The score was tied at 50 when sophomore Courtney Davidson of Ursuline took matters into her own hands. Davidson, who had the hot scoring hand throughout the game and led all scorers with 28 points, hit consecutive 3-point shots late in the fourth period to lead the Irish to the hard fought victory.
But it was the second one that had the biggest impact.
"I knew we had to get a lead so we could finish it off and maybe get them to foul us, and so I just was feeling it and I just took it," said Davidson, who finished the game shooting 11 of 24 with five 3s. "I know I have a team to back me up no matter what. I know they need me and I need them and it's just a team effort. We all have to come together and play."
Halftime tie: After the two teams played to a 29-29 tie at the half, Canfield fell behind late in the third, trailing by seven at 46-39 with 2:24 remaining in the period, but made a run at Ursuline to start the fourth quarter.
"We weren't happy with the way we played in the first half, but I thought we played much better in the third quarter," said Ursuline coach Sean Durkin. "But a team like Canfield is going to make a run at you, you know it, and it was just a great fourth quarter. We just had a little more left at the end."
The Irish sealed the victory when Christina Cook, who scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds, broke away for an easy lay-in off of a back-court in-bounds pass with 44 seconds left to play.
"They were the better team tonight. It was pretty obvious," said Canfield coach Pat Pavlansky. "Sure they hit some big shots, but I really felt they beat us on the boards so bad that if we were going to win tonight, we were going to have to steal it.
"They outworked us on the boards all night and if you don't rebound the basketball, you're not going to be very successful," Pavlansky said.
Good boards: Durkin was pleased with the performance of his tall players inside, as well. The Irish out-rebounded the Cardinals 33-26, as Sarah McKelvey had 10 boards and Mahogani Graves had nine to lead the way for Ursuline. Davidson also added five boards to the total with three of those on the offensive end.
"I thought [our girls] worked real hard inside and they made some big baskets and got some big rebounds in big situations," Durkin said.
The win should give the Irish (5-2) some momentum going into their match-up with perennial power, Bedford Chanel, on Saturday.
"Hopefully we can use this game to kind of vault us into a little bit of a run here," Durkin said.